Mainstreaming the human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment with the Reykjavik process
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly
debate on 18 April 2024 (12th sitting) (see Doc. 15955, report of Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable
Development, rapporteur: Mr Simon Moutquin). Text
adopted by the Assembly on 18 April 2024 (12th sitting).See
also Recommendation 2272
(2024).
1. The Parliamentary Assembly recalls
that the challenge of climate change constitutes a major existential emergency
for humankind and that this emergency is mainly due to the lack
of structural and long-lasting action.
2. The Assembly notes with dismay that the Council of Europe
is now the only regional human rights system which has not yet formally
recognised the right to a healthy environment.
3. For decades, however, the Assembly has been calling on the
Council of Europe member States to take this step. In particular,
it reaffirms its
Recommendation 2211
(2021) “Anchoring the right to a healthy environment:
need for enhanced action by the Council of Europe”, which was adopted
unanimously.
4. The Assembly notes that at the 4th Summit of Heads of State
and Government of the Council of Europe, held in Reykjavik on 16
and 17 May 2023, the Heads of State and Government recognised the
urgency of additional efforts to protect the environment and to
counter the impact of the “triple planetary crisis of pollution, climate
change and loss of biodiversity” and its effects on human rights,
democracy and the rule of law. An Inter-Secretariat Task Force on
the Environment was established in January 2024 and has carried
out a stocktaking survey of existing activities, planned activities
and proposals for new activities. It also proposed elements for
the development of a first Council of Europe strategy on the environment.
5. The Assembly also notes that, in 2024, the Committee of Ministers
will have to follow up work on the feasibility of instruments on
human rights and the environment and the draft convention superseding
and replacing the Convention on the Protection of the Environment
through Criminal Law (ETS No. 172).
6. Mindful of the importance of this strategic moment, almost
one year on from the 4th Summit and three years after
Recommendation 2211 (2021),
the Assembly wishes to update its expectations and contribute to the
implementation of the Reykjavik Process through concrete and realistic
proposals.
7. The post-Reykjavik environment strategy will be implemented
by and for the young generations and must be supported by civil
society. The course must therefore be firmly fixed for the future
and the bar set high, as the Council of Europe and its member States
will be held accountable for decades to come. In this respect, the
Assembly considers that the requirements in terms of accountability
must be extremely strict: transparency, ethics, accessibility, responsibility,
efficiency and reliability must be the watchwords of all the measures deployed.
8. The Assembly underlines the need for the future strategy to
have a clear goal in terms of setting standards at European level
and encourages decision makers to focus on drawing up a legally
binding instrument, within the Council of Europe, recognising an
autonomous right to a healthy environment.
9. The Assembly reiterates that the nature, content and implications
of the right to a healthy environment have been widely documented
for decades and have been the subject of a wealth of scientific,
normative and judicial material.
10. The Assembly welcomes the fact that almost all Council of
Europe member States recognise the right to a healthy environment
in one form or another in their national legislation and that some
systems have already adopted an ecocentric view of this right.
11. In terms of governance, ecological transition will not take
place without the buy-in of citizens because of its far-reaching
impact on lifestyles. In the Assembly’s view, this implies that
the future strategy must implement concrete and ambitious measures
to promote social acceptance of environmental policies, ensuring meaningful
and fully fledged citizen participation at national level.
12. In addition to compliance with environmental standards and
policies, the Assembly encourages measures aimed at strengthening
the resilience of the most vulnerable populations and ensuring their
inclusion without discrimination in the transition to a sustainable
future.
13. The Assembly believes that greater responsiveness can be achieved
through the setting up of specialised environmental hubs in all
branches of governance. This approach should be encouraged in the allocation
of budgets to courts. For national parliaments to be involved in
such developments and in environmental policies in general would
also imply that they should have specialised bodies in place.
14. In the light of these considerations, the Assembly calls on
the Council of Europe member States to:
14.1 continue to reflect continuously at national level on
the nature, content and implications of the right to a healthy environment
so that, in the near future, this right will be recognised in law
as an autonomous human right in each member State;
14.2 step up their efforts to promote, in all governance bodies,
the legitimacy and added value of the Council of Europe playing
a leading role in drawing up a legally binding instrument recognising
an autonomous right to a healthy environment;
14.3 engage in innovative projects to transform environmental
governance and in particular to:
14.3.1 encourage the introduction
of effective citizen participation mechanisms at national level,
such as citizens’ assemblies on climate, to promote social acceptance
of environmental policies;
14.3.2 provide a framework, structure and support for local initiatives
targeting the populations most vulnerable to environmental problems,
such as programmes designed to mobilise young people from working-class
backgrounds;
14.3.3 support the creation of specialised environmental hubs
in all branches of governance.
