On 29 September 2021, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) proposed a new additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights which would recognize the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment within the Council of Europe system. The proposal, which is based on a report by PACE member Simon Moutquin (Belgium SOC), can be found here, and it also proposes the adoption of a parallel additional protocol to the European Social Charter.
The Assembly’s proposal will now be considered by the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, which will decide whether to draft a corresponding protocol. Several previous attempts to recognize the right to a healthy environment within the Council of Europe have failed, and a similar recommendation by PACE from 2009 did not lead to the adoption of a corresponding optional protocol by the Committee of Ministers. PACE announced that this new instrument would would give the European Court of Human Rights “a non-disputable base for rulings concerning human rights violations arising from environment-related adverse impacts on human health, dignity and life”.
Further information:
- For more on this, see the press release from the Council of Europe.
- To read the draft Protocol, click here.
- In September 2022, the CoE’s Steering Committee on Human Rights (CDDH) recommended the domestic recognition of the right to a healthy environment. On this, see here.