The Nature, Content and Realisation of the Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment

Abstract

The right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is being increasingly adopted internationally and nationally. Nevertheless, there remains ambiguity regarding what the right and the correlative duty to protect the right entail. This article examines the nature, content and realisation of the right. The nature of the right is suggested to be a cluster of rights, including civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights and other rights. The content of the right has at least three components: substantive, procedural and intertemporal. Realisation of the right depends on the correlative duty to respect, protect and fulfil the right. The content of the duty includes specific obligations to achieve the inviolable element of the right, the minimum core obligations and the progressive realisation of that right using maximum available resources. In this way, the article suggests a conceptual framework that can guide states in better realising the right.