Socioeconomic and Cultural Rights and the Anthropocene
Environmental Human Rights in the Anthropocene: Concepts, Contexts, and Challenges (Walter F. Baber & James R. May eds., Cambridge University Press, 2023).
28 Pages Posted: 3 Apr 2023
Date Written: March 27, 2023
Abstract
This chapter explores the role of existing social, economic, and cultural rights (SECRs) in advancing environmental human rights. It does so to underscore the complementary and often central role SECRs play in addressing environmental concerns. Indeed, courts have long vindicated rights to life, dignity and health, including in environmental contexts associated with the Anthropocene. Courts and tribunals around the globe – principally in the Indian subcontinent and in South America – have turned to SECRs to engage issues involving access to clean water and healthy air, pollution control, biodiversity protection, and climate change, and done so notwithstanding legal recognition of Environmental Human Rights. This chapter explains why and what it means for advancing a right to a healthy environment by other means.
Keywords: Environment, Human Rights, Environmental Human Rights, Anthropocene
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