{"id":14113,"date":"2022-08-30T11:53:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-30T11:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/?p=14113"},"modified":"2025-07-10T10:36:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T10:36:13","slug":"a-human-rights-approach-to-sustainability-and-environmental-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/story\/14113\/a-human-rights-approach-to-sustainability-and-environmental-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"A Human Rights Approach to Sustainability and Environmental Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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On 28th July, 2022, the UN General Assembly voted in favour of a historic resolution<\/a> declaring access to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a universal human right. The resolution does not carry any legally binding obligations\u2014rather it calls upon countries, international organizations and business enterprises to \u201cadopt policies, enhance international cooperation, strengthen capacity-building and continue to share good practices\u201d in order to shift towards sustainability and circularity. But what does this resolution mean, and how might it challenge our current extractivist and unsustainable model of development?<\/p>\n\n

By speaking about the right to a healthy environment, the resolution provides a basis to frame our concerns around environmental degradation, pollution and climate change within the larger discourse of human rights. This will serve as a foundation for all relevant stakeholders and catalyse the articulation of legal systems which incorporate the right to a healthy environment within the human rights framework. It should encourage countries to introduce legislations based on this discourse within national constitutions and regional treaties. Another growing environmental conservation movement, the Rights of Nature<\/a>, extends the framework of rights to nature and has already been adopted into the constitutions of Ecuador and Chile<\/a>.

In a statement, UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres hailed<\/a> the historical resolution, saying, \u201cThe resolution will help reduce environmental injustices, close protection gaps and empower people, especially those that are in vulnerable situations, including environmental human rights defenders, children, youth, women and indigenous peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n

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However, the resolution was not passed without concerns being raised by representatives within the UN General Assembly, and these concerns have been echoed by others as well. These include:<\/p>\n\n