Environmental protection as a prerequisite for respect for fundamental rights

Environmental protection as a prerequisite for respect for fundamental rights

â–ş This event will be webstreamed.

Scope and objectives

On Friday, 17 September 2021, the Sustainable Development Observatory (SDO) of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is organising an online public hearing to gather the views of environmental law specialists, international institutions and other stakeholders. The debate will feed into the preparation of the SDO information report on the topic of the Environmental protection as a prerequisite for respect for fundamental rights.

The information report will discuss the impacts of the environmental degradation on the fulfilment of the fundamental human rights. It will explore how recent shifts in the legal systems, the regulatory frameworks as well as the recent developments in climate litigation can leverage an achievement of environmental protection for citizens.

Language regime: this meeting will be interpreted into EN FR HU

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Context

In the face of unprecedented global changes (biodiversity collapse, widespread pollution, climate change, etc.), most notably causing extreme weather events, the effects of climate change are having a direct and indirect impact on a range of human rights that are guaranteed at international and European level, such as

  • the right to life and health,
  • the right of access to food and drinking water,
  • the right to property and housing,
  • and the right to religion and culture.

Furthermore, the interconnectivity between fundamental rights and climate change is more broadly in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), developed by the United Nations on the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which the European Union has committed itself in the context of the Agenda 2030.