Human Right to a Clean, Balanced and Protected Environment
![handle is hein.journals/ijli20 and id is 42 raw text is: The Human Right to a Clean, Balanced and
Protected Environment
JANUSZ SYMONIDES
This paper was presented at the International Association of Law Libraries Con-
ference on Ecology and Law in the Baltic Sea Area: Sources and Developments,
in Riga, Latvia, on August 26-31, 199o. Vanusz Symonides is a member of the
Polish Institute of International Affairs, Warsaw, Poland.]
INCE THE December 1968 General Assembly's resolution in which for the
first time the United Nations admitted the linkage between environmen-
tal protection and human rights and expressed concern that environmental
changes could have various (negative) implications for basic human rights,
this question has been vividly discussed on many occasions.
In the recent resolution on human rights and the environment (6 March
199o), the Commission on Human Rights noted that the States Parties to
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights rec-
ognized the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable
standard of physical and mental health and agreed, for that purpose, to take
the steps necessary for the improvement of environmental and industrial
health. The Commission underlined that the increasing environmental deg-
radation caused by the negative influence of scientific and technological de-
velopment has led in some cases to irreversible changes in the environment,
which threatens life-sustaining ecosystems and undermines health, devel-
opment prospects and the very survival of life on the planet. It expressed its
conviction that the preservation of these life-sustaining ecosystems is of vital
importance for the protection of human rights.
Today nobody can put in doubt this intimate linkage, as well as the seri-
ous impact of the environmental protection on human rights. However, the
following question arises: can we already speak about the existence of a
human right to a clean, balanced and protected environment? And if the
answer is positive, what are the conditions for its implementation?
I. PROCLAMATION AND RECOGNITION OF THE RIGHT TO A CLEAN AND
BALANCED ENVIRONMENT
i.i International standard-setting instruments
For the first time the right to the environment was formulated by the
United Nations Conference which met in Stockholm (Sweden) from 5 to 16](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/ijli20&div=9&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Human Right to a Clean, Balanced and Protected Environment
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