RIGHT TO PROTECT ENVIRONMENT AS A HUMAN RIGHT : INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES

This article examines the growing recognition of the right to a clean and healthy environment as a fundamental human right. It analyzes this concept from both international and national perspectives. The study traces the evolution of environmental rights in international law, from soft-law declarations to its inclusion in regional human rights treaties and its linkage with established rights like the right to life. The research also explores how this right is being incorporated into national constitutions and enforced by domestic courts in various countries. The paper argues that framing environmental protection as a human right provides a powerful normative and legal tool for holding states and corporations accountable for environmental degradation. The analysis concludes by assessing the challenges and prospects for the universal recognition and effective implementation of this emerging human right.

The conceptualization of environmental protection as a human right represents a significant evolution in both environmental law and human rights discourse. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of this development from both international and national legal standpoints. The first part of the study focuses on the international perspective. It traces the journey of environmental rights from the 1972 Stockholm Declaration to the Rio Declaration and discusses how various human rights bodies have begun to interpret established rights, such as the right to life, health, and culture, as having a clear environmental dimension. It examines the jurisprudence of regional human rights courts that have pioneered the enforcement of these rights. The second part of the paper shifts to the national perspective. It provides a comparative analysis of how different countries have incorporated the right to a healthy environment into their constitutions and domestic legislation. It presents case studies of landmark judicial decisions where national courts have enforced this right, often through innovative public interest litigation. The findings suggest a clear global trend towards the constitutionalization and justiciability of environmental rights. The paper concludes that while significant challenges to enforcement remain, the framing of environmental protection as a human right is a transformative development that empowers citizens and strengthens the legal basis for demanding a sustainable future.