At the request of Colombia, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) issued an advisory opinion regarding the environmental obligations of states that comprise the Inter-American Human Rights System. The IACtHR held that the right to a healthy environment is a fundamental human right and detailed the obligations of states when they have caused or may cause significant environmental harm, including cross-border harm.
An advisory opinion by the IACtHR is not a ruling about any legal dispute, and as such, will not be enforced related to any one case. However, the Court has stated that advisory opinions should be taken into account by states exercising their duty to ensure conformity of their domestic legal regime with applicable inter-American human rights instruments (duty to exert conventionality control).
In this landmark advisory opinion, for the first time, the IACtHR directly upholds the right to a healthy environment and specifically enumerates related state obligations for environmental harm, including cross-border harm. In a related development in 2018, the International Court of Justice decided a significant case on environmental protections, determining the level of compensation in the context of cross-border environmental damages.
The IACtHR’s recognition of the human right to a healthy environment as an autonomous right signifies that in relevant cases, parties no longer need to claim that their right to life, personal integrity, water, or another related right is affected by environmental harm, but can directly claim that their right to a healthy environment is being violated. Moreover, the Court included extraterritorial obligations (ETOs) in its advisory opinion, thus strengthening progressive jurisprudence in relation to the scope of states’ human rights obligations.
The reasoning in this opinion can be used by environmental advocates and potential claimants in future cases related to environmental harms and the human right to a healthy environment. Climate change was also explicitly mentioned in the opinion which provides tools for future climate change litigation by citizens. In an inspiring development, ESCR-Net member, Dejusticia, used the Court’s reasoning in their successful climate change litigation on behalf of 25 children and youth against Colombia for failing to curb deforestation in the Amazon.
For decades, decisions from the Inter-American Court have advanced progressive jurisprudence at international bodies across the world. CIEL Senior Attorney Carla García Zendejas remarked that, “this historic precedent will bolster communities seeking justice not only in Latin America but around the world, from communities affected by mining in Colombia to climate justice advocates in the Philippines and beyond.”
In another key development, elevating the importance of recognizing the human right to a healthy environment as the IACtHR has now done, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, David R. Boyd, has urged the United Nations to formally recognize the human right to a healthy environment, commenting that, “as the devastating impacts of pollution, climate change, and extinction accelerate, it becomes essential to use every tool available to address these planetary challenges.”
For their contributions, special thanks to ESCR-Net members: the Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE) at Northeastern University and the Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF).
Last updated on: 8 January 2019
ESCR-Net members Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), and Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CeMDA) were among the organizations that provided input on the legal questions under consideration by the Court.