Title: Universal right to a safe and healthy environment and use of child right strategic litigation in climate justice

Authors: Sajid Ali; Abida Yasin

Addresses: Global Campus of Human Rights, Lido-Venice, Italy; Human Rights Center, University of Padua, Padua, Italy ' Punjab University Law College, University of the Punjab, Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract: A safe and healthy environment is an inalienable component for the human survival. Under international and human rights law, the universal right to a safe and healthy environment has not been explicitly been recognised, however, the right to life clauses of such international instruments has been interpreted in a way to give meaning to the right to a safe and healthy environment. The recent developments in the field and its assertion as a universal human right had gained momentum with the development and use of child right strategic litigation for climate justice. The success in strategic litigation in the fields of climate justice and climate change can provide a way in solidifying the concept of right to a safe and healthy environment as an explicit and independent human right in international law and human rights instruments. The call for recognition of this right has been in limelight with the increase of climate change and global warming. However, its recognition is still a matter of time in human rights instruments.

Keywords: environment; climate justice; strategic litigation; human right; safe and healthy environment; climate change; environmental law; international law.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHRCS.2025.145273

International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, 2025 Vol.12 No.2, pp.189 - 197

Received: 02 Apr 2023
Accepted: 14 Apr 2023
Published online: 31 Mar 2025 *

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