The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable ocean: Study

The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution in 2022 that formally recognizes that there is a universal human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Yet there is evidence that human rights impacts associated with the degradation of the ocean environment are accelerating. In this perspective, we highlight how the recognition of the human right to a healthy environment can catalyze ocean action and transform ocean governance (Bennett, N.J., Morgera, E. & Boyd, D. The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable ocean. npj Ocean Sustain 3, 19 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44183-024-00057-7).

In particular, it can do so through 1) catalyzing marine protection and increasing accountability through clarifying state obligations, 2) improving the inclusiveness of ocean governance, including through prioritizing and empowering groups in situations of vulnerability, and 3) enhancing ocean economy practices through clarifying private sector responsibilities. To those ends, there is an urgent need to move from recognition to implementation in order to protect both current and future generations’ human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable ocean.

Humans depend on the ocean for food, health, livelihoods, security, cultural continuity, and a good standard of life. Yet, a myriad of ocean issues – including pollution, plastics, climate change, overfishing, industrialization, ecosystem degradation, and loss of biodiversity – are undermining human rights related to the ocean environment. In this perspective, we draw attention to the transformative potential of the United Nations resolutions on “The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment” to enhance ocean protection and governance. In particular, we highlight how the recognition of the human right to a healthy environment can: catalyze marine protection and increase accountability through clarifying state obligations; enhance the inclusiveness of ocean governance, including through prioritizing and empowering groups in situations of vulnerability and marginalization; and improve ocean economy practices through clarifying private sector responsibilities.

While there is emerging evidence that the human right to a healthy environment is already catalyzing marine protection and transforming ocean governance, there is still an urgent need to take steps to move faster and more strategically from recognition to uptake and implementation.

Priority actions to make this happen include:

• raising awareness about the potential of the human right to a healthy environment to catalyze urgent, effective and equitable marine protection and sustainable ocean use;
• strengthening national and international legal frameworks and institutional capacity for ocean conservation, management and restoration, to effectively prevent infringements of the human right to a healthy environment by states and the business sector;
• ensuring sufficient funding for ocean conservation and management, to protect everyone’s human right to a healthy environment;

• improving alignment and coordination between human rights and ocean governance organizations, institutions and policies;
• enhancing environmental democracy in ocean governance and maintaining safe civic spaces for ocean advocates and defenders;
• increasing knowledge, capacity and legal empowerment of structurally marginalized and potentially vulnerable groups to advocate for their right to a healthy ocean;
• encouraging environmental and civil society organizations to collaborate and work in solidarity with marginalized and vulnerable groups who are advocating for their right to a healthy ocean; and,
• strengthening regulation, monitoring and accountability mechanisms that require the private sector to fulfill its responsibilities related to the right to a healthy environment.

The human right to a healthy environment offers a beacon of hope for communities and constituencies struggling to ensure the just and sustainable conservation, restoration and use of the oceans. Governments have clear obligations, not options, pursuant to international human rights law to enact, implement and enforce laws that will improve ocean health and the well-being of people who depend on marine ecosystems. The private sector also has responsibilities and can be held to account for actions that infringe on human right to a healthy ocean. While some communities are more obviously dependent on the oceans, the fact that these vast ecosystems cover more than 70% of the planet and have absorbed approximately 93% of the excess heat caused by greenhouse gas emissions means that all of humanity depends on this global marine life-support system. The human right to a healthy environment helps to ensure that no-one is left behind in ocean governance, and that transformative changes to protect the ocean are effective and equitable, drawing on diverse life experiences, worldviews, values and knowledge systems.