The right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment: how to make it operational and effective

Abstract

In the last year, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted, and New York State's Constitution Bill of Rights has been amended to include, a right to a healthy environment. This continues a trend of adoption of a constitutional or statutory right to a healthy environment. The right to a healthy environment is constitutionally recognised in 110 countries. The article explores what a right to a healthy environment entails and how it can be made operational and effective. It is presented in three parts: first, what the right to a healthy environment involves; second, the correlative duties to uphold and protect the right; and third, the systematic and structural change to law and governance needed to uphold the right and discharge the duties.