New awareness that humanity is completely dependent on healthy Earth systems, that are now gravely disrupted by anthropogenic activities, has led to increased claims for a healthy and sustainable environment based on international human rights law.
Mechanisms of international human rights protection have shown remarkable adaptability through evolutive interpretation of the applicable instruments, often inspired by the developments in international environmental and climate law, dialogue between international judges, the practice of domestic courts and the voices of civil society. This course offers an overview of the relevant international law instruments and of the case-law of the three regional human rights courts, UN treaty bodies, and several superior national courts. It discusses States’ positive obligations in the context of pollution, environmental disasters, ecological activism, and environmental rule of law. It also explores the legal paradigms of immersive anthropocentrism and ecocentrism, rights of nature, and the principles and concepts of international environmental law, such as no harm, precaution, in dubio pro natura, intergenerational equity and sustainable development. At the moment when requests for advisory opinions and lead contentious cases concerning climate change are pending before several international courts, it is crucial to understand the genesis of environmental human rights and their trajectory towards ecological human rights.