As the impact of our species on the natural world intensifies, so does the knowledge of our dependency on it: from crop-pollinating critters and wild fish populations that nourish millions, to ecosystems that inhale carbon emissions and filter air and water.

These connections have bolstered a legal argument around the importance of a healthy environment – that is, intact ecosystems and animal and plant populations, as well as a stable climate. To John Knox, an expert on international environmental law and human rights law at Wake Forest University, a healthy environment is as important to human life as freedom of expression, health, work, education and other rights generally accepted under international human rights law.

Between 2012 and 2018, Knox was appointed by the United Nations to investigate the relationship between human rights and the environment as an independent expert and special rapporteur. As he concluded his term, Knox urged the UN General Assembly to formally recognise the right to a healthy environment through a treaty or resolution. Yet the right to a healthy environment still remains a “ missing human right” at the UN level, Knox writes in the 2020 Annual Review of Law and Social Science.

Over 150 of the 193 UN member nations already recognise the right to a healthy environment, through constitutions, general legislation or regional human rights treaties – albeit with varying degrees of enforcement and impact. Recognising the right at the UN level, Knox argues in an interview with Knowable Magazine, could help communities around the world make more powerful legal arguments to preserve nature. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Read more
https://science.thewire.in/environment/a-healthy-environment-as-a-human-right/