18/04/2024 Session
PACE, meeting today in plenary session, deplored the fact 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.
It recalled that at the 4th Council of Europe Summit in Reykjavik (16-17 May 2023), the Heads of State and Government recognised the urgency of protecting the environment and countering the impact of the “triple planetary crisis of pollution, climate change and loss of biodiversity”.
The resolution adopted by PACE on the basis of the report by Simon Moutquin (Belgium, SOC), welcomes the setting up in January 2024 of an Intersecretariat Task Force on the Environment, responsible for carrying out a stocktaking survey of existing and planned activities, and “proposing elements for the development of a first Council of Europe strategy on the environment”.
The Parliamentary Assembly stated that this future strategy must have a clear goal in terms of setting standards at European level and underlined the importance “to draw up a legal binding instrument recognising an autonomous right to a healthy environment within the Council of Europe”, capitalising on existing Council of Europe standards.
In this context, PACE called on the member states to reflect at national level on the nature and content of the right to a healthy environment, so that this right is rapidly recognised in law as an autonomous human right. The adopted resolution also encourages the creation of specialised environmental teams in all branches of governance, as well as the introduction of citizen participation mechanisms at national level to promote social acceptance of environmental policies, particularly by and for young people.
Finally, the Parliamentary Assembly recommended that the Committee of Ministers give priority to the setting up of an “ad hoc intergovernmental committee to organise, co-ordinate and run the implementation of the Strategy and action plan”, and to the drawing up of a “a binding legal instrument as soon as possible”.