15/05/2009 President | European Convention on Human Rights
Strasbourg, 15.05.2009 – A concrete proposal to inscribe “the right to a healthy environment” into the European system of human rights protection is to be debated in September by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), its President announced yesterday.
Addressing the Nevsky International Ecological Congress in St Petersburg, jointly organised by PACE and the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Lluís Maria de Puig said: “We believe that living in a healthy environment is a basic right that every human being should have.”
He said a proposal would be made to draw up an additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights guaranteeing such a right. If agreed by the Assembly, the recommendation would then pass to the Committee of Ministers – the Council of Europe’s executive body – for a final decision.
Under the Convention as it currently reads, only a proven violation of the Convention can be prosecuted, such as medical proof of a serious effect on human health, he pointed out. “A new protocol to the Convention is essential if we want our citizens to benefit from the precautionary principle, guaranteeing the right to live in a healthy and viable environment,” he said.
There is also an urgent need for consultation among governments across the globe, and adjustment of the economic system, in order to take better account of the need for sustainable development, the President concluded.