Transcript Human Rights Webinar: Focus on a Right to a Healthy Environment Lauren Bartlett Local Human Rights Lawyering Project Erika Lennon Program on International & Comparative.

Human Rights Webinar: Focus on a
Right to a Healthy Environment
Lauren Bartlett
Local Human Rights Lawyering Project
Erika Lennon
Program on International & Comparative Environmental Law
Webinar Overview
Erika Lennon: overview the right to a healthy
environment.
Erika Lennon’s Bio: http://www.wcl.american.edu/
environment/erikalennon.cfm
Lauren Bartlett: overview of relevant human rights
law and how to build a right to a healthy environment
argument
Lauren Bartlett’s Bio: http://www.wcl.american.edu/
humright/center/about/who/staff/#bartlett
Download a copy of this ppt here:
http://www.wcl.american.edu/humright/center/resea
rchtools-coordinatedinitatives-handbooks.cfm
Introduction: Right to a Healthy Environment
“[M]an has the fundamental right to freedom,
equality and adequate conditions of life, in an
environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity
and well-being, and he bears a solemn responsibility
to protect and improve the environment for present
and future generations.”
Stockholm Declaration (1972).
Introduction: Right to a Healthy Environment
Introduction: Right to a Healthy Environment
“The Emerging Law of Environmental Human Rights
is Clearer Than Ever Before”
John Knox, U.N. Independent Expert on Human
Rights and the Environment
Introduction: Right to a Healthy Environment
Human Rights which are more susceptible than
others to certain types of environmental harm,
including:
 Right to life
 Right to health
 Right to food
 Right to water & sanitation
 Right to adequate housing
 Right to non-discrimination
 Right to self-determination
Introduction: Right to a Healthy Environment
“[H]uman rights law sets out certain procedural and substantive obligations on States
in relation to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment,
which include:
(a) To respect and protect the right to seek, receive and impart information
and to provide information on and for assessments concerning environmental
impacts on human rights;
(b) To respect and protect the rights of freedom of expression, association
and peaceful assembly, including by facilitating and providing for meaningful
opportunities to participate in decision-making processes;
(c) To ensure access to effective remedies where human rights and
fundamental freedoms are violated;
(d) To adopt and implement laws and other measures to ensure that human
rights are respected and protected in the context of environmental policies;
(e) To protect against non-State human rights abuses, including by
enforcing environmental laws that directly or indirectly contribute to the protection
of human rights”
U.N. Human Rights Council Resolution on Human Rights and the
Environment, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/25/L.31 (2014).
Background on the Handbook
• Aims to get practical and useable human rights
information into the hands of legal aid attorneys
• Principles used for drafting:
• Simple language
• Everyday use
• Repetition
• Handbook is available for download
on our website:
(http://www.wcl.american.edu/humright/center/locallawyering.cfm)
Handbook Overview
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
5.12.1 Intro: Right to a Healthy Environment
5.12.2 Quick Statistics & Resources for Data
5.12.3 Relevant Human Rights Law
Human Rights Law: Right to a Healthy Environment
International Conventions
 Every human being has the inherent right to life. ICCPR, art. 6
 No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference
with his privacy, family, home. ICCPR, art. 17.
 Right to an adequate standard of living, including food and
water, clothing, and housing, to the continuous improvement of
living conditions. ICESCR art. 11.
 Everyone shall have the right to live in a healthy environment
and have access to basic public services and state parties shall
promote the protection, preservation and improvement of the
environment. Protocol of San Salvador, art. 11.
Relevant Law cont’d: U.S. Court Cases
Relevant Law cont’d: U.S. Legislation
 Executive order on environmental justice
 7 U.S. States include the right to a healthy
environment in their state constitution
Relevant Law cont’d
Relevant Law: Mossville Case
 Mossville, LA
 Majority & historically African-American




Community
14 chemical-producing facilities in and around
Public health crisis
Environmental Racism
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Mossville Environmental Action Now v.
United States, Inter-Am. C.H.R., Report No.
43/10, Petition 242-05 (2010), admissibility
decision
Mossville Case: Petitioners’ Arguments
 The United States has failed to protect the rights to
life and health of Mossville residents.
 American Declaration, art. I - Right to Life
 American Declaration, art. XI – Right to Health
 ICCPR , art. 6(1) – Right to Life
 CERD, art. 5 – Right to Health
 The Commission has recognized the
interrelationship between the rights to life and
health in the context of environmental degradation

Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Ecuador, InterAm. C.H.R., OEA/Ser.L/V/II.96 (1997).
Mossville Case: U.S. Govt Arguments
 There is no such right as the right to a healthy
environment



Under American Declaration
Under other human rights treaties
Nor as a matter of customary international law
 “[E]ven if one were to assert that customary
international law somehow existed on the topic, no
such rule could bind the U.S. as it has never
accepted such a rule, and in fact objects to the
creation of such a norm, making it what is known as
a “persistent objector” so that any such norm would
not apply to it.
Relevant Law cont’d
 Treaty Body and Special Procedures Commentary
and Recommendations
5.12.4 Sample Arguments
5.12.5 Talking Points for Oral Arguments
5.12.8 Other Resources
• Catchall section
• Other international environmental law guides
• Reports
• Articles, blogs and other collections of relevant
resources
Building a Human Rights Argument
26
 Know your forum…appropriate?
 Decide why you are going to use the argument
 Decide how you are going to use argument:
 Orally?
 Letter?
 Brief?
Building a Human Rights Argument
27
 Make arguments based in local, state and federal law
 Explain why human rights law is relevant to this
court and this case
 Introduce your “hook” to human rights law
 Introduce human rights law itself
Specific Case Example
28
Example of explanation of why human rights law is relevant
to this court and to this case:
“The opinion of the world community, while not controlling our
outcome, does provide respected and significant confirmation for our
own conclusions.” Roper v. Simmons, 125 S. Ct., 1183, 1200 (2005). See
also, Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558, 576 (2003) (Noting that “[t]he
right the petitioners seek in this case has been accepted as an integral
part of human freedom in many other countries” and by the European
Court of Human Rights); Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306, 344-45
(2003) (Ginsburg, J., concurring) (citing The International Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and The
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women to provide support for affirmative action under the
Constitution); Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304, 316 n.21 (2002);
Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702, 718 n.16 (1997); Trop v.
Dulles, 356 U.S. 86, 102-03 (1958).
Specific Case Example
29
Introduce your “hook” into human rights law
 Could be state constitution’s right to a healthy
environment
 Could be fact that right to a healthy environment is
widely recognized
 Other ideas?
Specific Case Example
30
 Introduce human rights law itself
Above and beyond the violations of state and federal law discussed above,
the Defendant’s actions violate petitioner’s right to a healthy environment,
which has recently begun to be widely recognized under international law,
but has long been recognized by individual countries around the world and
by several U.S. states. See, e.g., Lopez-Ostra v. Spain, App. No. 16798 Eur.
Ct. H.R. (1994), http://hudoc. echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=
001-57905; UN Office of the High Commissioner, News and Events,
Environment and human rights: the link is there, and so is the States’
obligation to protect them – UN expert, Mar. 7, 2013, http://www.ohchr.
org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13089&LangID=E;
UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Independent Expert on the issue
of human rights obligation relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy
and sustainable environment, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/22/43 (Dec. 24, 2012),
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/
Session22/A-HRC-22-43en.pdf. See also, e.g., Hawai’i Const. Art. XI, § 9
(1978); Illinois Const., Art. XI, § 1 (1971-72); Mont. Const., Art. II § 3 (1972).
Specific Case Example
Add facts of your case and analyze using human rights
law:
The [regulation/policy at issue] should be struck down in favor of a
policy that better safeguards the rights to life and health, and the
right to a healthy environment, which is interrelated to the rights to
life and health. [ADD FACTS OF YOUR CASE & ANALYSIS]
For more information on Human Rights in the U.S. for
Legal Aid and other Public Interest Attorneys
 Right to Counsel Webinar, June 16th, 2014 at
12:30pm (register at www.WCLCenterforHR.org)
 Handbook
 available for download at
http://www.wcl.american.edu/humright/center/researchtoolscoordinatedinitatives-handbooks.cfm