By Achilleas Dimitriadis
The constitutionalisation of the human right to a Healthy Environment will classify the environment as an essential good. It is also, in my view, an obligation of our generation towards our children because we owe them "One Cyprus and Green".
The new right to the Environment can be achieved by amending the Constitution. This is my conclusion, based on what was presented at the Legal Conference for the World Human Rights Day on 10 December 2021. This conference was co-organized by the House of Representatives, the Cyprus Bar Association and the Council of Europe.
In the first part, the right to a healthy environment was presented by two Judges of the European Court of Human Rights ("ECHR") and two academics. This was followed by an in-depth discussion in the light of the analyses.
Neither in the Cyprus Constitution nor in the European Convention on Human Rights ("the Convention") is there specific protection for the environment.
Usually this protection is ensured in the Convention in an indirect way. Either by using the right to life (Article 2) or housing and privacy (Article 8) or even the right to the peaceful enjoyment of property (Article 1 of the First Protocol).
From the analysis of the speakers I have confirmed the obvious effort made in the ECHR for environmental mobilization. To achieve this environmental protection through the Convention there was a need for a creative and dynamic interpretation of the Convention. The conditions are now ripe to protect the environment as a right in its own right.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on 29 September 2021 has already passed a resolution to amend the Convention and
create an additional protocol to protect the environment as a separate right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
A similar line was adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. On 8 October 2021, the Council recognized our debt to the youth of the planet and accepted the need to enshrine the environment as a fundamental right.
In Cyprus, the Constitutional amendment could be made either to the Right to Life (Article 7), the Right to a decent living (Article 9) or the Right to Privacy (Article 15). In Greece, for example, Article 24 of the Constitution enshrines the protection of the environment as an obligation of the state and correspondingly as a right of the individual.
The Movement of Ecologists - Citizens' Co-operation positioned itself at the conference on the substance of the issue, stressing that as of 27 September 2019 it had submitted a proposal for a law for the protection of the environment by amending the right to life that is provided for in Article 24 of the Constitution.
The Movement of Ecologists - Citizens' Co-operation positioned itself at the conference on the substance of the issue, stressing that as of 27 September 2019 it had submitted a proposal for a law for the protection of the environment by amending the right to life that is provided for in Article 24 of the Constitution. At the same time, the citizen will have the right to demand and claim it.
By recognizing the environment as a separate right, a Honourable State will be able to ensure what citizens reasonably seek and are entitled to.
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