Council Of Europe Must Recognise The Right To A Healthy Environment, UN Experts Urge

GENEVA (5 May 2025) – UN experts* today urged the Ministers at the Council of Europe to demonstrate leadership by starting negotiations on an additional binding Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights that would finally recognise the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.

“This will be a key milestone in reinforcing legal protection for both people and the planet,” the experts said, recalling the letter sent on this matter on November last year. “Recognising this right in a binding regional instrument will respond to long-standing calls by countless affected people and communities, the European Parliament, and hundreds of organisations, movements and academia.”

The triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and toxic pollution, exacerbated by historical injustices and systemic inequalities, presents an existential threat to humanity. Despite growing awareness and scientific evidence, current actions remain insufficient to meet global and regional environmental goals.

“Explicit recognition of this right would also bring substantial social, economic and environmental benefits to Member States: arising from healthier ecosystems, that help address health inequalities for individuals and communities, and allow for significant public health savings, among others,” the experts said.

The decision to negotiate an additional Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights has been pending for decades. “Today, however, both scientific consensus and legal developments at all levels clearly demonstrate the need and feasibility of such a Protocol,” the experts said.

Significant steps have been made in recognising the right to a healthy environment with 28 of the 46 Council of Europe Member States recognising this right. The experts noted that all European countries voted in favour of UN resolutions (A/HRC/RES/48/13 and A/RES/76/300) recognising the right to a healthy environment globally – signalling clear regional and international consensus.

They stressed that crucial steps were needed to level the playing field across Europe, strengthen regional cooperation, and enhance legal certainty, particularly in the face of transnational environmental harm and increasing undue corporate influence regarding information, decision-making and justice systems.

“An additional Protocol could play a pivotal role by providing judges and government officials with stronger, more comprehensive and clearer legal tools to effectively address and resolve disputes on the defence of human rights to a healthy environment, as the European Court has highlighted,” they said.

The experts stated that the right to a healthy environment is essential to enabling environmental democracy, and for the integration of access to information, public participation, transparency, and accountability in environmental decision-making processes, for the benefit of current and future generations.

“Europe must seize this moment to demonstrate principled leadership, reaffirm its commitment to human rights and the environment, and respond decisively to the demands of people, science, and justice,” they said.

“Recognising the right to a healthy environment would strengthen democracies, and be a transformative step to safeguard the lives, health, livelihoods, cultures, and dignity of current and future generations, including children and youth who are most affected by the triple planetary crises,” the experts said.

*The experts: Astrid Puentes Riaño, Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment; Elisa Morgera, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change; Pedro Arrojo Agudo, Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation,Marcos A. Orellana Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes

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