Social rights and the environment in decisions of the European Committee of Social Rights
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15290/eejtr.2025.09.01.03Keywords:
social rights, expansionism of human rights, environmental protectionAbstract
The article analyses the issue of protecting social rights from the perspective of environmental protection, especially the right to a clean environment established in the practice of law. And although this right does not have normative anchorage in international law, its presence is visible in the interpretation of social rights. The decisions of the European Committee of Human Rights were discussed, which led to the conclusion that there is currently a phenomenon of human rights expansionism in the area of the link between social rights and the right to a clean environment. The methods used in the research will be characteristic of the methods used in the social sciences, and in particular in law: the functional method, the formal-dogmatic method, the comparative legal method and the descriptive method.
Downloads
References
Akandji-Kombe, J.F. (2015). The Material Impact of the Jurisprudence of the European Committee of Social Rights, w: G.de Búrca, B.de Witte & L. Ogertschnig (eds.), Social Rights in Europe. Oxford 2015.
Atapattu, A. (2016). Human Rights Approaches to Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities. Abingdon, 98.
Beschluß des Ersten Senats vom 20. Dezember 1979, 1 BvR 385/77, in dem Verfahren über die Verfassungsbeschwerde der Oberstudienrätin V ... gegen den Beschluß des Oberverwaltungsgerichts Rheinland-Pfalz vom 3. Mai 1977 - 1 B 15/77, https://www.servat.unibe.ch/dfr/bv053030.html.
Bodansky, D. (2010). Introduction: Climate Change and Human Rights: Unpacking the Issues. Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, 38(3), 517.
Boisson de Chazournes L. (2020). Environment – human rights and the environment: an evolving relationship. Speech on the Opening of the Judicial Year Seminar of the European Court of Human Rights. Strasbourg.
Brillat, R., (2005). The Supervisory Machinery of the European Social Charter, w:n G. de Búrca & B. de Witte (eds.), Recent Developments and their Impact in Social Rights in Europe. Oxford 2005.
Caney, S. (2008) Human rights, climate change, and discounting. Environmental politics, 17, 536 i 538.
Case Fredin v. Sweden (No. 1) (Case Fredin), Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights of 18 February 1991, Application No. 12033/86, ECLI:CE:ECHR:1991:0218JUD001203386 .
Case Lopez-Ostra v. Spain (Case Lopez-Ostra), Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights of 18 February 1991, Application No.16798/90, ECLI:CE:ECHR:1994:1209JUD001679890.
Case Marangopoulos Foundation for Human Rights v. Greece (Case MFHR), Decision of the European Committee of Social Rights on the Merits of 6 December 2006, Complaint No. 30/2005, cc-30-2005-dmerits-en
Case European Roma Rights Centre v. Bulgaria (Case ERRC), Decision of the European Committee of Social Rights of 3 December 2008, Complaint No. 46/2007, cc-46-2007-dmerits-en.
Case International Federation of Human Rights Leagues v. Greece (Case FIDH), Decision of the European Committee of Social Rights of the 23 January 2011, Collective Complaint No. 72/2011, cc-72-2011-dmerits-en.
Case Médecins du Monde - International v. France (Case Médecins du Monde), Decision of the European Committee of Social Rights of the 11 September 2012, Complaint No. 67/2011, cc-67-2011-dmerits-en
Case the European Roma and Travellers Forum v. the Czech Republic (case ERTF), Decision of the European Committee of Social Rights of the 17 may 2016, Complaint No. 104/2014, cc-104-2014-dmerits-en
Case Attac ry, Globaali Sosiaalityö ry and Maan ystävät ry v. Finland, Decision of the European Committee of Social Rights on admissibility and on immediate measures of 22 January 2019, Complaint No.163/2018, cc-163-2018-dadmissandimmed-en.
Chajbowicz, A. (2020). Administracja wobec zmian klimatu (prolegomena). Przegląd Prawa i Administracji, 120, p. 392.
Conclusions 2005 - Statement of interpretation - Article 11, 30 June 2005, European Committee of Social Rights, 2005_Ob_1-1/Ob/EN
European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 4 November 1950, ETS No. 5.
European Court of Human Rights, The European Convention on Human Rights: living instrument at 70, Strasbourg 2020.
European Court of Human Rights (2020A),The Convention as a Living Instrument at 70. Background Document, Judicial Seminar 2020, Strasbourg.
European Social Charter 18 October 1961, ETS No. 35.
European Social Charter (Revised) 3 May 1996, ETS No. 163.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 16 December 1966, United Nations Treaty Series, vol.999.
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 16 December 1966, United Nations Treaty Series, vol.993.
Kahl, V. (2022). A human right to climate protection – Necessary protection or human rights proliferation?. Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 40 (2), 18.
Knox, J.H., & Pajan, R. (2018). Introduction, The Human Right to a Healthy Environment. Cambridge.
Lachs, M. (1992). Czy kryzys prawa międzynarodowego?. Państwo i Prawo, 2, 18–24.
Lewis, B. (2018). Environmental Human Rights and Climate Change: Current Status and Future Prospect. Springer, p. 152, 171-180.
Menkes, J., Kociołek-Pęksa, A. (2018). Aksjologia praw człowieka jako wyznacznik pragmatyzmu ONZ. Nowy paradygmat bezpieczeństwa i praw człowieka – metaforyzacja w prawie. Przegląd Zachodni, 1, 153.
Palmisano, G. (2020). Speech at the High-level Conference: Environmental Protection and Human Rights, former President of the European Committee of Social Rights. Strasbourg, https://rm.coe.int/palmisano-statement-environment-humanrights-27-02-20/16809cbfec.
Pathak, P. (2014). Human Rights Approach to Environmental Protection. OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development, 7 (1), 17.
Recommendation Rec(2005)4 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on improving the housing conditions of Roma and Travellers in Europe, Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 23 February 2005 at the 916th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies, https://www.refworld.org/docid/4278e0504.html.
Report of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol on its sixteenth session, held in Glasgow from 31 October to 13 November 2021. Addendum. Part two: Action taken by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol at its sixteenth session, https://unfccc.int/documents/460957.
Resolutions 41/120 adopted by the General Assembly on 4 December 1986, Setting international standards in the field of human rights, U.N. Doc. A/RES/41/120.
Resolution CM/ResChS(2013)15, Collective Complaint No. 72/2011, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) v. Greece, Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 16 October 2013 at the 1181st meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies, https://search.coe.int/cm/Pages/result_details.aspx?ObjectID=09000016805c7703.
UN General Assembly, Right to a healthy environment: good practices. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, 30 December 2019, UN Doc. A/HRC/43/53.
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 217A, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 December 1948, A/RES/217A
Vanderheiden, S. (2008). Atmospheric Justice: A Political Theory of Climate Change. Oxford, 252.
Vasak, K. (1977). Human Rights: A Thirty-Year Struggle: the Sustained Efforts to give Force of law to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UNESCO.
White, A., & Ovey, C. (2014). The third generation of human rights consists of those rights that concern people collectively and include the right to development, to peace, and to a clean environment, w: B. Rainey, E. Wicks & C. Ovey (Eds.), Jacobs, White and Ovey: The European Convention on Human Rights. Oxford.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
1. The Author declares that he or she has created the written work and holds exclusive and unlimited copyright /both moral and property rights/ and guarantees that no third parties have rights to the work.
2. In the view of the Copyright and Related Rights Act, a work must fulfill the following criterion:
a) be a manifestation of creative work,
b) have an individual character („author’s personal stamp”),
c) have a set form.
3. The Author declares that the text has not been previously published (under the same or different title, or as a part of another publication).
4. The Author allows (grants a non-exclusive license) the publishing house of University of Białystok to use the scholarly text to:
- preserve and multiply by means of any technique; save in a digital form with no limitations as to the manner and form of digital preservation;
- upload online with no limitations as to the place and time of access.
5. The Author grants consent for editorial changes made in the work.
6. The Author grants the University of Białystok rights free of charge for the duration of property copyright with no territory limits. The University has the right to grant sublicenses in the acquired rights.
7. Granting a non-exclusive license allows the Author to preserve their rights and allows other parties to make use of the work according to sublicensing agreement with provisions identical as those of Attribution 4.0 Internacional License (CC BY 4.0), available online at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
8. The Agreement has been concluded for an indefinite period of time.
9. Because of costs born in preparation of the work for publishing, the Parties oblige themselves to act in good faith and refrain from declining to grant licenses.
10. To all matters not settled herein, provisions of the Civil Code and Copyright and Related Rights Act of 1994, February 4 shall apply.
11. All disputes shall be resolved by a court of local jurisdiction for the place of seat of University of Białystok.
