A European Human Rights Perspective on National Sustainable Development Institutions

Abstract

The protection of the environment is a cornerstone of intergenerational justice and a main objective of national sustainable development institutions. Different approaches to the protection of the environment are possible. One approach is to consider the protection of the environment in its own right. Another approach to the protection of the environment is a human centred perspective which defines the environment from the perspective of its value for human beings. The European context is a particularly good example since, due to the volume of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)’s jurisprudence in comparison to other human rights bodies, valuable findings may be made with regard to how civil and political rights can serve the protection of the environment. Accordingly, this paper examines environmental protection through the lens of the case law of the ECtHR. It will start with a brief overview of the protection of the environment in the framework of the Council of Europe in Part 2. Then, Part 3 argues that the right to a healthy environment is increasingly well protected in the dynamic case law of the ECtHR. Still, there are important challenges to the protection of the environment through the ECtHR’s jurisprudence. These include the victim requirement under the European Convention of Human Rights, a generally wide margin of appreciation granted to states and the ECtHR’s understandable self-restraint regarding reparations once a violation is established. This will be discussed in Part 4. While there are certain indicia of improvement – as shown in Part 5 – there is still a long way to go. Against that background, Part 6 discusses the considerable need for national sustainable development institutions to achieve a truly effective protection of the environment, therewith complementing the protection of the ECtHR.