Human rights environmental protection and the sustainable development goals

Abstract

I. IntroductionThe 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development emphasized that every state has the responsibility respect, protect and promote human rights, and that democracy, good governance and the rule of law . . . are essential for sustainable in each of its three dimensions: economic growth, social development, and environmental protection. 1 The following year, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon reiterated that an essential building block for sustainable development agenda is a far-reaching vision of the future firmly anchored in human rights and universally accepted values and principles.2The importance of human rights for economic and social development has long been recognized in principle, if not always in practice.3 However, the relevance of human rights for environmental protection, the third pillar of sustainable development, has only recently begun to receive increased attention at the United Nations. In March 2012, shortly before the Conference on sustainable Development, the united Nations Human Rights Council decided to appoint an independent expert with three-year mandate to clarify the human rights obligations relating to environmental protection and to identify good practices in their use.4 In addition, the independent expert was requested to [t]ake into account the results of the 2012 United Nations Conference on sustainable Development and contribute human rights perspective to follow-up processes.5Perhaps the chief follow-up process was the development of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to guide progress toward sustainable development after 2015, the date set as target by the Millennium Development Goals.6 At the 2012 conference, governments decided to establish the open Working Group to develop the sDGs, and in August 2014, the group submitted its report to the UN General Assembly.7 The report proposed seventeen new SDGS and 169 targets for realization of specific aspects of the goals. The General Assembly decided that the proposal shall be the main basis for integrating sustainable development goals into the post-2015 development agenda, while recognizing that other inputs may also be considered in the intergovernmental negotiation process.8 This continuing negotiation is expected to result in document adopted by the General Assembly by the end of 2015.This article explains how the Human Rights Council mandate on human rights and the environment relates to the development of the SDGs. Part I describes the mandate's principal findings on the relationship between human rights obligations and environmental protection. Part II evaluates the goals and targets proposed by the open Working Group in light of those findings. The article concludes that while the draft SDGs set out many worthwhile goals, the targets often do not contain language that is concrete and focused enough to effectively promote human rights or environmental protection.II. The Relationship Between Human Rights Law and Environmental ProtectionThe modern environmental movement, which began in the late 1960s, realized from its early days that human rights and environmental protection are closely linked. For example, the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, the first united Nations environmental conference, proclaimed that [b]oth aspects of man's environment, the natural and the man-made, are essential to his well-being and to the enjoyment of basic human rights-even the right to life itself.9 A few years later, countries began to add right to healthy environment to their national constitutions.10 However, this recognition came too late to be codified in the major international human rights agreements. The General Assembly had already adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and the two International Covenants on human rights in 1966.11 Later efforts to introduce right to healthy environment in new global human rights instrument were unsuccessful. …