Consultancy: Legal consultant to support ClientEarth’s fundamental rights work in Europe

In the last five years, there have been significant advances in the legal recognition of environmental human rights. Many national constitutions, for instance, now recognise the fundamental right to a healthy environment. At the international level, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a landmark Resolution (76/300) on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. The International Court of Justice declared the right to a healthy environment as the foundation for the realisation and enjoyment of human rights, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in a case in which ClientEarth intervened, also recognised the right to a healthy climate as a component of the right to a healthy environment. Taken together, these developments show that human rights law and human rights courts are key players in the effort to curb the triple planetary crisis.

ClientEarth’s “The Right to a Healthy Environment in Practice” Project leverages these legal developments by integrating environmental and human rights law to develop stronger obligations on States to protect people and planet, creating legal precedents and environmental justice models for other activists to use. In this way, the project seeks to achieve justice for those who suffer the severest effects of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. This contract is particularly focused on strengthening the European legal framework to protect fundamental rights against biodiversity loss.