ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS
Human rights and the environment are intertwined.
Human rights cannot be enjoyed without a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment; and sustainable environmental governance cannot exist without the establishment of and respect for human rights.
Environmental rights are composed of substantive rights and procedural rights. Procedural rights are necessary to achieve substantive or fundamental rights.
Procedural rights find their legal foundation in Article 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development 1992 (the Rio Declaration). Principle 10 sets out three fundamental procedural rights: access to information, access to public participation and access to justice, as key pillars of sound environmental governance.
The Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment has identified six substantive elements within the right to a healthy environment: clean air; a safe climate; access to safe drinking water and sanitation; healthy biodiversity and ecosystems; toxic free environments; and healthy and sustainably produced food.
Global and regional advances in the recognition, promotion and protection of procedural and substantive environmental rights, including the adoption of the UN General Assembly and UN Human Rights Council resolutions recognizing the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, have created an opportunity for ASEAN to build upon and enhance relevant provisions of the ASEAN Charter and ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) on human rights and environment, that reflects ASEAN’s unique identity and values.