Indivisibility, and interdependence of human rights and the environment: in search of an integrated approach for achieving sustainable development

Since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to a healthy environment has rapidly evolved to include sustainable development and the rights of nature. In particular, sustainable development has emerged as a central principle that has reimagined environmental rights cohesively against other social, cultural and economic rights enshrined under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and has enabled the global community to explore integrated approaches within the human rights paradigm.

Yet in practice, sustainable development and the right to a healthy environment has been criticised for lacking a precise meaning which has contributed to difficulties in enforcement. What does a right to a healthy environment mean? If sustainable development integrates other social, cultural and economic rights, how do we achieve an adequate balance between competing rights? With the climate crisis now producing tangible outcomes and entrenching further injustice, the interrelationship between human rights and environmental rights, enforcement and the governance structures in place to realise these rights have never been more important.

This chapter will explore the interrelationship between the right to a healthy environment, sustainable development and human rights. This chapter will consider how environmental rights impact, and are impacted by, other human rights, how environmental rights are recognised in international instruments and the barriers which prevent a realisation of these rights to maintain a minimum standard of human dignity.