Publications

Human rights and environmental sustainability are inextricably linked. A healthy, safe, and productive environment is a necessary precondition for the enjoyment of most human rights. At the same time, the concept of human rights may prove a valuable ally in promoting and eventually achieving environmental sustainability. Human rights have been at the forefront of multilateral policymaking for the last half century, with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights paving the way since the end of the Second World War. The notion of rights inherently belonging to humans and the building blocks of such a theory have been around long before then, arguably for millennia; however, their systematization and, even more importantly, their central positioning in international affairs has been a much more recent development.