Lauren Bar t le t tLoca l Human R ights Lawyer ing Pro jec t

Er ika LennonProgram on In te rna t iona l & Compara t i ve Env i ronmenta l Law

Human Rights Webinar: Focus on a Right to a Healthy Environment

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 argumentLauren 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/researchtools-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 OverviewPart 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 justice7 U.S. States include the right to a healthy

environment in their state constitution

Relevant Law cont’d

Relevant Law: Mossville Case

Mossville, LAMajority & historically African-American

Community14 chemical-producing facilities in and aroundPublic health crisisEnvironmental RacismInter-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,

Inter-Am. 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

Know your forum…appropriate?

Decide why you are going to use the argument

Decide how you are going to use argument: Orally? Letter? Brief?

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Building a Human Rights Argument

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

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Specific Case Example

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).

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Specific Case Example

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?

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Specific Case Example

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).

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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/researchtools-coordinatedinitatives-handbooks.cfm