The Need for a New Covenant on the Right to a Healthy Environment

Abstract

As humanity is facing a “triple planetary crisis” of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, it seems imperative to strive for an effective integration of new international legal principles, rights, and duties in international environmental law. Following the recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment as a human right by the UN Human Right Council (2021) and the UN General Assembly (2022), a new Covenant on the Right to a Healthy Environment would reaffirm this right. It can also shape and strengthen new international environmental norms. In order to ensure the effectiveness of the right to a healthy environment, the proposed covenant need to recognize other environmental rights, duties, and principles inherent to the right to a healthy environment and provide for concrete implementation and monitoring measures. This article examines the need for adoption of the proposed new covenant on the right to a healthy environment, before addressing the fundamental environmental rights, duties, and principles inherent to the right to a healthy environment that should necessarily be included, and analyzing how the proposed new covenant can be implemented and monitored so as to ensure effective protection of the environment and our environmental rights.