Right to a Healthy Environment

The right to a healthy environment means that every person has the right to live in a place that does not endanger their health, safety, or dignity. This right is not only about nature. It is also about who makes decisions, who bears the consequences, and whether people have the right to know what is happening around them.

It includes the right to clean air, safe water, unpolluted land, protection of nature, access to information, public participation in decision-making, and the possibility to demand accountability when the environment is threatened.

This right matters because pollution, environmental destruction, and non-transparent decisions do not affect everyone equally. Local communities, poorer citizens, children, older people, workers, and those without the power to be easily heard are often the first to suffer.

When the environment is threatened, health, home, work, safety, the future of children, and the feeling that people have the right to decide about the place where they live are also threatened. That is why the right to a healthy environment is not an addition to other rights. It is where nature, dignity, and justice meet.

This right can be seen when citizens request information about air quality, water, land, or projects that may affect their health and the place where they live.

It appears when a local community asks for a public discussion about a mine, factory, landfill, forest cutting, or construction that changes a natural area. It also appears when people ask why decisions are being made without them, even though they are the ones who will suffer the consequences most directly.

Everyday examples include polluted city air, a river changing color because of waste, noise and dust from industry, uncontrolled forest cutting, unclear project permits, a school or house located near a polluter, and situations in which institutions do not respond to citizens’ questions.

The legal basis of this right can be found in constitutional guarantees, laws regulating environmental protection, the right to access information, the public’s right to participate in decision-making, and the right to legal protection when the environment is threatened.

In Serbia, this right is connected to the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, environmental protection laws, environmental impact assessment, access to information of public importance, and the obligation of institutions to protect the public interest, human health, and natural resources.

In Serbia, the right to a healthy environment is connected to the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, environmental protection laws, access to information of public importance, environmental impact assessment, and the right of citizens to participate in decisions about projects that may affect their lives and health.

This right is especially important when mining, industrial, energy, or infrastructure projects are planned in ways that change the space where people live. Institutions have an obligation to protect the public interest, human health, and natural resources, not only to formally carry out procedures.

At the international level, the right to a healthy environment is connected to the right to life, the right to health, the right to private and family life, the right to information, public participation, and access to justice.

An important framework is formed by documents and standards of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the European human rights protection system. The Aarhus Convention is especially important because it connects environmental protection with the right of citizens to be informed, to participate in decision-making, and to seek legal protection when those rights are threatened.