{"id":26499,"date":"2024-11-19T09:50:20","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T09:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bhr-navigator.unglobalcompact.org\/?post_type=issues&p=26499"},"modified":"2025-05-13T11:53:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T10:53:58","slug":"droit-a-un-environnement-sain","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/bhr-navigator.unglobalcompact.org\/fr\/issues\/droit-a-un-environnement-sain\/","title":{"rendered":"Clean, Healthy, and Sustainable Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Traduction fran\u00e7aise \u00e0 venir.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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What is the Right to a Clean, Healthy, and Sustainable Environment?<\/h4>\n <\/div>\n\n\n
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For the full enjoyment of human rights, a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is vital. This right seeks to hold States and companies accountable for environmental harm, which threatens the full enjoyment of human rights. The right to a healthy environment does not have a universally agreed definition but is understood to protect an individuals\u2019 rights to inter alia<\/em> clean air; a safe and stable climate; access to safe water and adequate sanitation; healthy and sustainably produced food; non-toxic environments in which to live, work, study and play; and healthy biodiversity and ecosystems. In line with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, all businesses have a responsibility to respect the human right to a healthy environment through the implementation of continual human rights due diligence.<\/p>\n

This right also includes certain procedural elements designed to enable access to information and participatory decision-making, provide redress for harm, and secure the free exercise of these rights. Although these elements only relate to State obligations, companies should consider them when engaging with stakeholders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Connection between human rights and the environment<\/h4>\n <\/div>\n\n\n
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The environment and human rights are inherently interlinked. All humans depend on the environment<\/a> in which we live, work, play, and study. 24% of all global deaths are related to the environment<\/a>, specifically the WHO attributes 37% of heat-related deaths to human-induced climate change<\/a>. Environmental impacts may include climate change, air pollution, soil degradation, water, soil and noise pollution, loss of biodiversity as well as deforestation. They may be caused, for example by unsafe use of hazardous substances, harmful emissions, unsustainable land use, and production and disposal of waste. Such impacts are threatening people\u2019s lives, health, housing, standards of living, food, security, and livelihoods \u2013 i.e. their human rights. A clean, healthy and sustainable environment is not only a precondition for human life but also for the enjoyment of these and other human rights including civil and political rights. As environmental degradation increases, so do the threats to the enjoyment of all human rights. The environmental crisis disproportionately impacts the world\u2019s most marginalized communities, including women, children, Indigenous populations and ethnic minorities, older persons, people with disabilities, People of Colour and people living in poverty. Ensuring a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is essential to the enjoyment of human rights, and the exercise of human rights contributes to more effective environmental protection.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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\n \n Triple Planetary Crisis<\/span>\n \n \n<\/svg>\n <\/summary>\n
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The progressive greening of human rights<\/a>, and the subsequent environmental cases being filed against private companies and States, is symptomatic of the ongoing \u201ctriple planetary crisis<\/a>\u201d. This crisis is comprised of three intersecting environmental issues, which impact the rights of people, particularly those in vulnerable conditions: pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss. Each of these issues have their own root causes and effects, and therefore require different approaches to resolve. However, they all need to be resolved to achieve a healthy and sustainable future.<\/p>\n

Climate change: <\/strong>This is considered the greatest threat to humanity<\/a>. It involves long-term changes to the planet\u2019s climate, including rising temperatures and more volatile weather patterns, caused by human activities. The consequences of climate change include rising sea levels, melting polar ice caps, increasing intensity and severity of natural disasters, such as droughts, fires, floods or storms, and changes to climatic cycles which restrict biodiversity. All of these consequences can impact the enjoyment of human rights.<\/p>\n

Pollution: <\/strong>Over-production, inappropriate disposal, unsustainable product-design, and insufficient recycling are generating high levels of pollution and waste, affecting the health of humans and ecosystems. With emissions from factories, cars, cooking, aviation, and heating degrading air quality, air pollution is one of the global leading environmental causes<\/a> of illness and premature deaths. Other forms of pollution can include plastic and microplastic pollution<\/a>, and pollution contaminating water sources through chemical dumps or leaks. This can risk the health of people, thus restricting their rights to health or life.<\/p>\n

Biodiversity loss: <\/strong>There are considered to be three levels of biodiversity<\/a>: genetic diversity, species diversity, and ecosystem diversity. All three levels of biodiversity are experiencing a decline in the face of the global biodiversity crisis. Pollution, climate change, the overexploitation of resources, changes in land use (such as urbanization, deforestation and intensive mono-culture farming<\/a>), and the introduction of invasive species, are all contributing to biodiversity loss<\/a>. This crisis restricts access to food as losing key species reduces the health and fertility of soil and produces lower crop yields, as well as depleting fish species. Furthermore, the natural pollution filtration systems in our water sources, such as sand, oysters, charcoal and minerals<\/a>, are decreasing with biodiversity loss. Biodiversity loss gives rise to disease and infection<\/a> \u2013 restricting access to clean water. Climate change, in particular, is also contributing to species extinction<\/a>, with at least 10,967 species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species<\/a> due to global warming and threats to habitats.<\/p>\n

The triple planetary crisis augments the issues vulnerable groups are already facing:<\/p>\n