This post was originally published on British Institute of Human Rights News .
World Environment Day
5 June 2018
Wold Environment Day was established in 1972 by the United Nations to encourage worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment. It has grown to become a global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated in over 100 countries, focusing on environmental concerns ranging from pollution to global warming and sustainable food production to protection of wildlife.
History of human rights and the environment
Human rights law provides an important way to protect the environment. As the UN Stockholm Declaration makes clear “both aspects of man’s environment, the natural and manmade, are essential to his well-being and to the enjoyment of basic human rights – even the right to life itself”. It goes on to stress that everyone “has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being, and he bears a solemn…