The Human Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment

human right to enjoy a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, and a corresponding duty of care for the State to provide such an environment to the individual. In addition, various non-state entities, including oil companies, car manufacturers and other businesses, may have a similar duty of care. Explicit recognition of an individual human right to be provided with a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is fundamentally different from considering a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment as a necessary precondition for the enjoyment of classical, long recognized and established human rights. Such a 'greening' of existing human rights has been underway for years,1 albeit that some regions of the world have been more progressive in this development than others.2 It would only be truly revolutionary if the right to a healthy environment were recognized as an independent individual human right.3