The rights you might not realize you have - Shannon Odell
Since 2015, an unprecedented movement has
been sweeping courts around the world.
Groups of young plaintiffs,
some as young as 7,
are suing their governments for their
inaction on tackling climate change.
For example, in the winter of 2018,
25 young Colombians,
including Indigenous youths,
sued their government for failing
to reduce deforestation in the Amazon
and falling short on climate promises.
This suit, as well as others,
argued that destructive
environmental policies
put the plaintiffs’ current and future
lives at risk.
Climate inaction violates
their basic human rights—
specifically the right to a healthy
environment, health, food, and water.
But what do human rights
have to do with the environment?
Do you have the right
to breathe clean air?
To live in a world with white rhinos,
polar bears, and lemur leaf frogs?
What about the right to mangroves
and coral reefs?
The first international document
to outline human rights
was adopted by the newly-formed
United Nations in 1948,
against the backdrop of two world wars
marked by countless atrocities
and barbaric acts.
This document, known as
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
or UDHR,
describes the inherent freedoms
that belong to all people,
no matter who they are or where they live,
and which can't be granted or revoked.
It establishes rights
like freedom of thought,
political liberties
like the right to a fair trial,
and socioeconomic and cultural rights,
like the right to adequate housing
and healthcare.
While the UDHR itself is non-binding,
its formation gave people an
internationally recognized set
of ethics and standards,
and laid the foundation
for human rights law.
And since 1948, these liberties have been
woven into international treaties,
constitutions, and laws,
meaning that countries have opted
to uphold and protect them.
As a result, countless individual
human rights struggles and movements
have been granted legitimacy
and a legal basis for pursuing justice.
The UDHR makes no mention
of nature, biodiversity, or climate.
These rights, instead, first took hold
at the national level.
Many countries within the Global South,
often influenced by Indigenous laws
and worldviews,
incorporated the right to a healthy
environment into their constitutions
and regional treaties.
Soon, human rights advocates were calling
on the rest of the world
and the United Nations to recognize
this right as well.
Many argued that the very principles
of the UDHR
depend on access to healthy ecosystems.
Each year, millions of people die
from air and water pollution.
Declining pollinator populations
threaten basic food security.
And the loss of coastal habitats has left
millions exposed to greater risks
from destructive floods and hurricanes.
Protecting this right is more urgent
now than ever before.
Climate change is causing
more frequent heatwaves, longer droughts,
and more destructive wildfires.
Without rapid and significant change,
the planet is at risk of mass extinction,
which could wipe out a quarter
of the world’s biodiversity by 2100.
Such losses to natural ecosystems would
likely have disastrous knockoff effects,
further threatening food supplies,
destroying livelihoods,
and leaving humanity
more vulnerable to disease.
Thankfully, momentum is building.
Today, over 150 countries
and jurisdictions
have enshrined the right to a healthy
environment into national legislation.
On April 5th, 2018,
the Colombian Supreme Court
ruled in favor of the young plaintiffs,
finding that the government was
legally obliged to reduce deforestation
and greenhouse gas emissions
in order to protect the rights
of present and future generations.
This case and similar historic wins
by young people
in the courts of the Netherlands,
Germany, and the US
has inspired others to take up the cause.
As of the summer of 2023,
a wave of more than 2,000
human rights-based environmental cases
have been filed across the globe.
And this number is likely to grow.
In 2022, an overwhelming majority of
UN General Assembly states came together
to keep human rights aligned
to a changing world
by recognizing the right to a clean,
healthy, and sustainable environment.
It will take unprecedented
global cooperation
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
stop deforestation,
and keep our waterways clean.
These court cases are a powerful first
step to hold governments accountable
and to give future generations
a better chance to breathe clean air,
and live in a world with white rhinos,
polar bears, and coral reefs
for years to come.
