There is no international agreement as to exactly what Environmental Human Rights are, but they can be broadly grouped in three areas:

1. The right to a clean and safe environment

These are 'substantive' rights. They are the most basic rights, and the hardest to define. Many organisations would support the idea that "clean water and food security" are "basic human rights" (quotes from UNEP Geo 2000 report). The UN Draft Declaration of Principles on Human Rights and the Environment, produced at a Meeting of Experts on Human Rights and the Environment held at the United Nations in Geneva in May 1994 spell out what these might be in more detail. This Draft Declaration can be downloaded here.

2. The right to act to protect the environment

This right is inherent in the UN Declaration and associated Conventions, through the right to organise and to free assembly. This right is under threat in many nations. The ‘Just Earth’ campaign run by the Sierra Club and Amnesty International USA has highlighted many such examples.

3. The right to information, to access to justice, and to participate in environmental decision-making

These rights enable citizens to play an active part in creating a healthy environment, and they are directly linked to the key points in several UN Conventions and Declarations. In Europe these rights are enshrined in the UNECE 'Aarhus Convention' (the European Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Decision-Making) (see below); other regions will need to consider how best to deliver these rights within local circumstances.

These rights do not exist in isolation: they cannot be seen as separate from other human rights or from other issues linked to poverty, economic and social exclusion. A human rights perspective to sustainable development moves from the ‘traditional green’ issues to a wider approach to protecting the most vulnerable in society.

These rights can provide a platform for environmental and sustainable improvements and are likely to benefit the most marginalised people, the poor, women, and minorities. The human rights perspective facilitates policies that have a strong impact on poverty and exclusion for reasons of gender or race. The right to information, justice and participation within the sustainable development context includes rather than excludes people who have felt excluded from the traditional green movement agendas. Environmental human rights support a bottom up approach. Active involvement and shared control, by the people and states most affected by a degraded environment is fundamental at local, national and global levels.