The Global Pact for the Environment: At the crossroads of human rights and the environment

• Author: John H. Knox
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12287
• Published date: 01 April 2019
• Date: 01 April 2019

40  

|

  RECIEL. 2019;28:40–47.

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/reel

1 | INTRODUCTION

International l aw has long treated huma n rights law and interna tional

environmental law as separate fields. However, the problems they

address significantly overlap and the fields increasingly influence

one another. In some re spects, t hey are even beginni ng to merge.

The Global Pac t for the Environment has the pot ential to be a mile-

stone in this rapidly developing relationship.1

As its name sug gests, the Global P act is quite ambitious; it asp ires

to be nothing less t han a new internati onal environme ntal constitu-

tion. The Pac t was drafted by environment al law experts from dif fer-

ent countries, working under the auspices of the environment

commission of the Cl ub des Juristes, a French legal think tank. Laurent

Fabius, the presi dent of the French Conseil Constitutionnel, chaired the

meeting of the ex perts in June 2017 at which th e text was finalized.2

The most obviou s precursor of th e Global Pact i s the 1992 Rio

Declaration o n Environment and Development , many of whose prin-

ciples the Pac t repeats in similar o r even identical lang uage.3 However,

as Yann Aguila and Jor ge Viñuales explain, the Pa ct goes beyond the

Rio Declaration in significant respects, including by codifying the prin-

ciples in the form of a legally binding instrument, by including some

new principle s, and by providing for a com mittee of exper ts to monitor

compliance and facilitate implementation of the Pact.4

In the fall of 2017, the French governme nt promoted the Pact in

several forums , including a high - level side event at the U nited

Nations (UN) Gen eral Assemb ly in New York in Septembe r. In May

2018, the Gener al Assembly adopted a res olution entitled ‘Towards

a Global Pact f or the Environment’, which reque sted the Secretary-

General to sub mit a report on g aps in internatio nal environment al

law and environme nt- related instr uments, and establis hed an open-

ended working g roup to consider th e report and di scuss possible

options to addre ss such gaps, ‘and, if deemed nece ssary, the scope,

parameters a nd feasibilit y of an internationa l instrument , with a

view to making reco mmendations, which may in clude the convening

of an intergovernme ntal conference to adopt a n international inst ru-

ment, to the As sembly during the firs t half of 2019’.5

The present ar ticle does not at tempt to predic t what will emer ge

from this proces s. The final res ult, if any, may not look muc h like the

1‘Draft Glo bal Pact for th e Environment ’ (24 June 2017) .

2As the French M inister of Foreign Af fairs, Fabius pre sided over the 21st Co nference of

the Partie s to the United N ations Frame work Conventi on on Climate Ch ange, which

adopted the P aris Agreeme nt in December 2 015.

3Rio Declar ation on Enviro nment and Deve lopment in ‘ Report of the U nited Nation s

Conference o n Environmen t and Develop ment’ UN Do c A/CONF.151/26 (vol I) (12 Augus t

1992) Annex (Rio D eclaration).

4Y Aguila and J V iñuales, ‘A Global Pac t for the Environment: C onceptual Foundati ons’

(2019) 28 Review of Euro pean, Compar ative and Inter national Envir onmental Law 3 .

5UNGA ‘Towards a G lobal Pact for the Enviro nment’ UN Doc A/RES/72/27 7 (10 May

2018).

DOI: 10 .1111/reel .12287

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

The Global Pact for the Environment: At the crossroads of

human rights and the environment

John H. Knox

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

Correspondence

Email: knoxjh@wfu.edu The Global Pac t for the Environment has the potential to b e a milestone in the rapidly

developing relationsh ip of human rights and the environment . Most importantly, the

first artic le recognizes the right of every per son ‘to live in an ecologically sou nd envir-

onment adequate for th eir health, well- being , dignity, culture and fulf ilment’. This

article provide s context for the prop osal to recognize the human r ight to a healthy

environment. It review s previous effor ts to recognize the huma n right to a healthy

environment at the natio nal and international l evels; explains how other hu man

rights, such as right s to life and health, have been constr ued to apply to environmen-

tal issues; and des cribes how recognition of the right in th e Global Pact, or in anothe r

instrument such as a r esolution of the United Nations Gene ral Assembly, would con-

tribute to the growing f ield of environmental human rights law.