A World of Difference: Overcoming Normative Limits of the ECHR Framework through a Legally Binding Recognition of the Human Right to a Healthy Environment

This article argues that while the Strasbourg human rights system provides a level of environmental protection through existing rights and their evolutive interpretation by the European Court of Human Rights, adopting an additional Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights (‘ECHR’) on the right to a healthy environment (‘R2HE’) would strengthen safeguarding of environmental human rights. By comparing R2HE with the green human rights doctrine, I identify six normative limits within the current ECHR framework, which, as shown through an analysis of the historic and most recent case law, stem from the lack of legally binding recognition of an autonomous R2HE. In this vein, this study argues that the Protocol could enable forward-looking environmental adjudication and resolution of a wide range of situations affecting both the environment and human rights, foster a more consistent, predictable adjudication process, as well as support the Council of Europe’s goal of strengthening human rights protection in response to the triple planetary crisis.