Page 261 - Week 01 - Thursday, 10 February 2022
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(1) recognises that:
(a) we have declared a climate emergency;
(b) we are part of the environment and, as a consequence, the health of the environment impacts on us and our actions impact on the health of the environment. The environment we live in is a precondition to a healthy life. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and all our natural resources come from our environment, and we must keep it healthy;
(c) COVID lockdowns and the COVID crisis have shown us how important access to nature and our local environment are to our mental and physical health;
(d) in 2018, the then Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, John Knox, presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council, a non-exhaustive list of 16 framework principles on human rights to the environment, summarising the main human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment;
(e) the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution on 1 October 2021 on the human right to a safe clean, healthy and sustainable environment. It recognised “that sustainable development… and the protection of the environment, including ecosystems, contribute to and promote human well-being and the enjoyment of human rights, including the rights to life, to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, to an adequate standard of living, to adequate food, to housing, to safe drinking water and sanitation and to participation in cultural life, for present and future generations”;
(f) the Human Rights Council resolution further noted that “the impact of climate change, the unsustainable management and use of natural resources, the pollution of air, land and water, the unsound management of chemicals and waste, the resulting loss of biodiversity and the decline in services provided by ecosystems interfere with the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and that environmental damage has negative implications, both direct and indirect, for the effective enjoyment of all human rights”; and
(g) the right to a healthy environment is legally recognised by the overwhelming majority of United Nations Member States around the world;
(2) notes that:
(a) the Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT) was the first Human Rights Act introduced in a state or territory in Australia;
(b) the Parliamentary and Governing Agreement for the 10th Assembly commits the ACT Government to consider introducing the right to a healthy environment into the Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT); and
(c) this commitment exists in the context of the ACT Government declaring a climate emergency in 2019, a commitment to rapid, science-based action to mitigate and adapt to climate change and a transition to net-zero emissions;
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