ACT Government moves to recognise the right to a healthy environment in Human Rights Act

The Human Rights Law Centre today applauds the ACT Government for introducing legislation to enshrine the ‘right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment’ into the Human Rights Act 2004. If passed, the Barr Government will be the first government in Australia to recognise the standalone right to a healthy environment in law.

Including the right to a healthy environment in law is one step towards the urgent change needed in the face of the existential triple-threats of climate change, rampant pollution and escalating environmental degradation.

In July 2022, Australia supported a landmark resolution by the UN General Assembly to formally recognise a standalone right to a healthy environment at international law but until today, no steps had been taken to implement this right into Australian law.

The Human Rights Law Centre also calls on the ACT Government to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the ACT play a central role in defining the right to a healthy environment.  

Quotes attributed to Keren Adams, Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre: 

“The fundamental rights to life, health, culture, water, food and a decent standard of living cannot be realised by all if governments and corporations are simultaneously destroying the environment we live in. The ACT Government should be commended for leading the way on how the Human Rights Act can light the path towards an Australia where human rights are at the heart of every decision made by governments.

“Everyone should be able to access food, water, healthcare and live a basic standard of life. With humanity entering a new era of ‘global boiling’, there is a pressing need for all Australian governments to act and find new ways to protect the precious ecosystems on which human life depends. 

“Our current laws are failing the environment and in doing so, failing communities. Governments across Australia should be doing everything they can, in collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, to rectify this in the face of the extraordinary threat that climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution pose to humanity and to human rights.

“Climate change is exacerbating the racialised environmental, social and economic injustices that colonisation was founded on, posing acute threats to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ rights to Country, culture and wellbeing. It is critical that the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the ACT are prioritised in the drafting of this right and that their rights, knowledge and practices are recognised by the ACT Government.

“Amending the ACT’s Human Rights Act to include the right to a healthy environment will not only help safeguard the environment for future generations, it will set the standard across Australia and the region. 

“Over 155 countries globally recognise the right to a healthy environment through national and regional laws. Governments across Australia should take note. The status quo has changed. A healthy environment is a human right, and it must be protected at all costs.”

Read our previous submission on the Right to a Healthy Environment in the ACT Human Rights Act