A new climate for human rights Susan Harris Rimmer, Christian Lane and Wesley Morgan
Last month the world turned its attention to the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow. While COP26 was a key moment for global cooperation on climate, the UN human rights system is also integrating climate into international human rights law, with significant implications for Australia. Recognition of the links between climate change and human rights is being driven, in part, by determined diplomacy from Australia’s Pacific Island neighbours.
Recognising the right to a healthy environment On 8 October 2021, in Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council recognised the human right to a healthy environment.1 This was an historic breakthrough, which meant that citizens can demand their governments consider, in their policymaking, the need for clean air, water and food for humans to thrive. While many countries recognise the right to a healthy environment, this was the first time the right has been explicitly recognised at the global level. Key elements of international human rights law – including the Universal Declaration on Human Rights;2 the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;3 and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights –4 do not directly mention the right to a healthy environment. Recognising the right to a healthy environment could be especially important as the world faces the rising impacts of climate change. The World Health Organisation estimates that between 2030 and 2050,5 climate change is expected to cause approximately 250, 000 additional human deaths per year, through malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress. Mental health issues are also expected to increase. Also in October, the UN Child Rights Committee (CRC) ruled that a State could be found responsible for the negative impact of its carbon emissions on the rights of children both within and outside its territory. 6
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Chain Reaction #141
December 2021
A new special rapporteur on climate and human rights The Human Rights Council has also appointed a new Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Context of Climate Change.7 This appointment was the culmination of a diplomatic campaign led by Pacific Island countries. At the COP25 UN climate summit in 2019, then Marshall Islands president Hilda Heine, speaking on behalf of 48 countries in the Climate Vulnerable Forum, called for the creation of a dedicated rapporteur on climate change and human rights.8 In 2020, member states of the Pacific Islands Forum – including Australia and New Zealand – formally backed the call.9 In 2021, Fiji ambassador Nazhat Shameem Khan became president of the UN Human Rights Council. Then, in the lead up to the Council vote, the Marshall Islands mission, based in Geneva, hosted a panel on human rights and climate change.10 This helped win support for the proposal, and it was adopted with considerable support (despite abstentions from India, China and Japan, and with Russia voting no). The Special Rapporteur has a mandate to study the ways that adverse effects of climate change impact the realisation of human rights, and to make recommendations for promoting and respecting human rights in the design and implementation of climate policy.
Implications for Australian policy and legislation While more than 100 countries have already recognised the right to a healthy environment in domestic legislation,11 Australia has yet to follow suit. Global recognition is a unique opportunity for Australian governments to give effect to the right to a healthy environment as well. While Australia does not have a national charter of rights, jurisdictions with existing human rights legislation – Victoria, Queensland and the ACT – will need to think about expanding the scope of their human rights legislation to include this new right.
“ While more than 100 countries have already recognised the right to a healthy environment in domestic legislation, Australia has yet to follow suit.”
