The right to clean, healthy and sustaibable ocean
The Ocean and Human Rights: Report by the Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to a Clean, Healthy, and Sustainable Environment, Astrid Puentes Riaño
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The report A/HRC/58/59 "The Ocean and Human Rights" by the Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, Astrid Puentes Riaño, highlights the close links between oceans, the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and the human rights of present and future generations.
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The Ocean, Our Climate Ally
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Firstly, this report reminds us that the ocean is a fundamental pillar of our climate's stability. It purifies air and water, recycles essential nutrients, and mitigates natural disasters. A true climate regulator, it constitutes the largest active carbon sink on the planet, storing nearly 38 trillion tons of carbon, a volume 28 times greater than that combined from terrestrial vegetation and the atmosphere.
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It has also absorbed over 90% of the excess heat linked to anthropogenic climate change and currently retains one-third of global carbon emissions. Protecting and restoring crucial marine ecosystems, such as mangroves and seagrass beds, presents an opportunity to potentially capture over 1.4 billion tons of carbon emissions annually by 2050.
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States' Responsibility: Protecting Our Oceans
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The report highlights the crucial responsibility of States to respect, protect, and implement human rights related to the oceans. This includes preventing, controlling, and reducing marine damage. Customary international law requires States to ensure that their activities do not harm the marine environment or the ecosystems of other nations. They must take all necessary measures to prevent significant transboundary environmental harm. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea further strengthens this obligation by requiring States to protect fragile ecosystems and the habitats of endangered or threatened species. This implies rigorous regulation, continuous pollution monitoring, conducting environmental impact assessments, and applying the precautionary principle.
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The report notes that regulations and initiatives for ocean governance are complex and difficult to coordinate and implement due to disparate perspectives (different geographical, scientific, economic, and geopolitical conceptions).
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Furthermore, ocean degradation harms the exercise of human rights:
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The right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment;
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The right to life threatened by submersion, marine heatwaves, and increased climate disasters;
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The right to food weakened by declining fish stocks, particularly in coastal communities dependent on artisanal fishing;
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The right to health affected by chemical and plastic pollution of marine ecosystems, and by food chain contamination;
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The right to culture and education.
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Therefore, preserving the ocean means acting in favor of various human rights.
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Key Challenges:
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Complex governance: Over 600 legal and institutional frameworks relate to marine ecosystems, leading to multiple levels of intervention and a lack of cooperation that renders governance ineffective.
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Industrial fishing: Relies on unsustainable and destructive practices, depleting fish stocks and jeopardizing the food security of billions of people.
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Lack of support for small-scale fishers: Who need it due to conflicts over resource use and resource grabbing.
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Coastal urbanization: Poor infrastructure and tourism planning harm coastal environments (mangroves, reefs, seagrass beds, etc.).
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Marine pollution: Particularly plastic pollution and pollution from land-based sources.
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Climate change and mining-related risks: Threats to biodiversity, ecosystems, and the livelihoods of millions of people.
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The Special Rapporteur therefore advocates for the integration of the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment into all ocean management initiatives to adopt an integrated and ecosystem-based perspective that would build on existing norms and processes to ensure the adoption of a human rights-based approach.
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The Human Rights-Based Approach Would Generate Specific Obligations for States:
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The human rights-based approach would generate precise obligations for States, both procedural (i) and substantive (ii).
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1. Procedural Obligations
These obligations are based on the principles of the Aarhus Convention and are outlined in the Special Rapporteur's report:
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Right to environmental information: On the health of oceans, pollution risks, or projects affecting marine areas.
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Public participation: Including indigenous peoples, women, and small-scale fishers, in marine governance and resource management.
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Access to environmental justice: To challenge violations of the right to a healthy environment.
These procedural rights are conditions for the effectiveness of other rights. They must be strengthened, particularly by ensuring meaningful consultation mechanisms and access to environmental data held by businesses or States.
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2. Substantive Obligations
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States must also take substantive measures aimed at:
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Reducing GHG emissions, which contribute to ocean acidification.
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Combating plastic pollution, which affects marine food chains.
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Preventing overfishing, particularly in areas exploited by industrial fishing.
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Protecting sensitive ecosystems, such as coral reefs, mangroves, or seagrass beds.
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It is therefore not merely a matter of abstract principles, but a positive obligation to act, commensurate with the risks, in order to guarantee the material conditions for the exercise of human rights.
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