Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment Under the European Convention of Human Rights:  Is an Additional Protocol Required for Effective Protection of Environmental Rights?

Gulnaz Alasgarova

doi:10.47078/2024.2.9-32

Authors

Gulnaz Alasgarova Head of the Department of Legal Studies, Institute of Law and Human Rights https://orcid.org/0009-0005-1492-7012

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47078/2024.2.9-32

Keywords:

climate change, margin of appreciation, anthropocentric approach, right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, victim status, ECtHR

Abstract

The right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment as a human right is not new to legal scholarship or the international community. This area is dynamically evolving and new challenges to the protection of environmental rights are emerging. Adoption of a new additional protocol to the European Convention of Human Rights on the right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is considered the most effective way to protect environmental rights and ensure a unified approach to combating the environmental crisis from a human rights perspective. However, this approach forces us to analyse the notions of margin of appreciation, victim status, and positive obligations of states once again. New challenges questioning such an anthropocentric approach, the limits of positive obligations, and the margin of appreciation may arise even upon the adoption of the protocol. The economic and financial status of states may vary and this may negatively affect protocol implementation. The uncertainty that arises in defining the boundaries of such obligations under the protection of environmental rights is especially concerning. In terms of positive obligations, the European Court of Human Rights Court tends to allow a certain margin of appreciation to contracting parties in this area of legal protection. Nevertheless, in light of the recent decision regarding climate change, the protocol is not guaranteed to provide an adequate response to the problem. The desire to be at the forefront of the fight against environmental pollution and climate change has further pushed the Court to take unconventional decisions that differ from previous case law. This article discusses the need to adopt an additional protocol; it focuses on the role of the protocol in defining the Court’s renewed approach to the margin of appreciation and the scope of states’ obligations under the Convention.

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