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2 - Environmental Human Rights

from Part I - Introducing the Environmental Minimum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2021

Stefan Theil
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

The chapter argues that a commitment to human rights necessarily entails basic environmental protection duties as a matter of political morality. This is because egregious forms of environmental harm critically undermine the fundamental values that underpin human rights, chiefly human dignity and autonomy. Human rights must therefore contain a sub-category of protections which we can conceptualise as environmental human rights. The human interests that environmental human rights protect are the environmental conditions necessary for the preservation and flourishing of human life, namely clean water, food, air, and soil within a functioning ecosystem that includes diverse species of plants and wildlife. Those who challenge these rights as vague overlook the significant room for agreement in the pursuit of a comprehensive and universal notion of a ‘sound’ environment. Meanwhile, converns over potential conflicts with other rights are overstated, because balancing of competing interests is a pervasive and well-established feature of human rights law and contemporary environmental regulations are already being challenged on the basis of competing rights, for instance to property.

Type
Chapter
Information
Towards the Environmental Minimum
Environmental Protection through Human Rights
, pp. 35 - 58
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Environmental Human Rights
  • Stefan Theil, University of Oxford
  • Book: Towards the Environmental Minimum
  • Online publication: 27 August 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108891769.003
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  • Environmental Human Rights
  • Stefan Theil, University of Oxford
  • Book: Towards the Environmental Minimum
  • Online publication: 27 August 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108891769.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Environmental Human Rights
  • Stefan Theil, University of Oxford
  • Book: Towards the Environmental Minimum
  • Online publication: 27 August 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108891769.003
Available formats
×