摘要
美洲人权法院发布《关于环境与人权的咨询意见》(OC-23/17)标志着国际人权法与国际环境法的融合迈出重要一步。《咨询意见》通过明确健康环境权的地位、国家在环境保护中的预防义务、程序性义务及跨境环境治理责任,为全球环境治理与司法实践提供了新的法律范式。其创新性地扩展了《美洲人权公约》下的国家管辖权概念,确立了国家防止跨境环境损害的义务,并要求各国采取措施避免境内活动对境外环境造成损害。这不仅推动了人权与环境的融合发展,也为气候变化诉讼、跨境环境损害案件及国际投资仲裁等领域的司法实践提供了重要的法律依据。《咨询意见》的发布可能促进国际法院、欧洲人权法院等国际司法机构在未来的案件审理中更多地援引健康环境权,强化各国在环境保护领域的法律责任。同时,它也鼓励各国更加积极地承认和落实环境权,持续推动全球环境保护与人权保障的法律融合进程。
The Advisory Opinion OC-23/17,issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2018,emerged against a backdrop of increasingly intertwined human rights and environmental issues,as well as intensifying environmental risks.While the academic community has long debated the importance of explicitly recognizing the link between the environment and human rights,a global consensus has gradually emerged.Over 100 countries have incorporated environmental and human rights provisions into their constitutions.In addition,the UN Human Rights Council recognized the right to a healthy environment in 2021,and the UN General Assembly affirmed a“clean,healthy,and sustainable environment”as a fundamental human right in 2022.However,regional human rights courts have taken varying stances on this issue,creating an urgent need for an authoritative interpretation to address related controversies.Advisory Opinion OC-23/17 explicitly affirms the independent status of the right to a healthy environment within the international human rights system.By combining treaty interpretation with principles of international environmental law,it elaborates on states'obligations in environmental protection.These include the obligation to prevent harm,procedural obligations,and the obligation of international cooperation.The Opinion emphasizes that states must take measures to prevent environmental damage from activities within their jurisdiction that could have trans-boundary impacts.Regarding the attribution of responsibility,the Court provided expansive interpretations of concepts such as“jurisdiction,”“effective control,”and“foreseeability,”asserting that a reasonable connection between state conduct and extraterritorial harm may trigger human rights obligations and judicial remedies.This interpretation not only links environmental protection with the right to life and personal integrity but also signals a shift from protecting individual rights to recognizing responsibility for ecosystems as a whole.The significance of this Advisory Opinion extends beyond its text.It promotes the integration of environmental issues into the core agenda of international human rights law,strengthens states’legal responsibilities in environmental protection,and provides new legal grounds for climate change litigation,trans-boundary environmental damage cases,and international investment arbitration.Furthermore,it lays the foundation for the right to a healthy environment to gradually evolve into customary international law.It may also influence institutions such as the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights to refer more frequently to environmental rights in future cases.Although some positions within the Opinion—such as its expansive interpretation of state obligations-remain contentious in international law and create tension with the sovereignty and development rights emphasized by some states,it undoubtedly offers a new interpretive path for the international community.It also provides a valuable reference for the integrated development of global environmental protection and human rights guarantees.
作者
王菲
WANG Fei(Law School,Northwest Normal University)
出处
《人权法学》
2025年第5期96-116,156,157,共23页
Journal of Human Rights Law
关键词
美洲人权法院
健康环境权
跨境环境损害
气候变化诉讼
Inter-American Court of Human Rights
right to a healthy environment
trans-boundary environmental damage
climate change litigation
