JUSTICE has signed an open letter urging Scotland’s First Minister not to renege on the government’s commitment to recognise the human right to a healthy environment in a Scottish Human Rights Bill.

Recognising the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment was a key recommendation of the Scottish Government’s National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership (2021) and also included in the Government’s 2023 consultation on a Human Rights Bill.

In that consultation, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice wrote that “recognising and including the right to a healthy environment within the limits of devolved competence is a necessary and important step for Scotland now to take.”

166 out of 193 UN Member States now legally recognise the right, which the UN sees as a critical tool for holding public bodies and polluters to account.

However, despite consistent support from a broad range of civil society organisations, the Scottish Government has since raised concerns about the strength, scope and coverage of duty attached to the right.

The letter reminds the government that the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) has unequivocally affirmed that the right to a healthy environment is an essential precondition to the full enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. 

Faced with the triple planetary crisis of climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, pollution and waste, the letter highlights how incorporation of the right into Scots law would contribute to a cross-cutting human rights framework. It could shift how budgetary and strategic decisions are made to tackle the systemic cause of food and energy insecurity and health inequalities, as well as meeting Scotland’s legal biodiversity and net zero targets.  

The letter has been signed by over 100 environmental, human rights, health, faith, trade union and community organisations, collectively representing thousands of supporters. Signatories include Human Rights Consortium Scotland, the Poverty Alliance, Together: The Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights, Inclusion Scotland, Stop Climate Chaos Scotland and Scottish Environment LINK.

It has also been endorsed by former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, Professor David R. Boyd.

Read the letter in full here.