Right to Life Question 3 What is the nature and scope of the right to life and can this right be used to address environmental harms, particularly: • • • how have international human rights instruments defined the ‘right to life’; what is the nature and scope of the right to life in customary international law as it relates to the condition of the environment; the extent to which environmental harms that affect human life violate the right to life Response The right to life is a fundamental part of customary international law, and is included in the primary international human rights instruments. For example, art 6(1) of ICCPR states ‘[e]very human being has the inherent right to life’, which ‘shall be protected by law’, and ‘[n]one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life’. 34 The right to life is a peremptory norm, which means that there can be no derogation, even in times of emergency. 35 The right to life is also included in a significant number of regional instruments and national constitutions. Traditionally, the right to life has been interpreted as the right to be free from the immediate and arbitrary deprivation of life. That is, the right protects individuals from acts like forced disappearances, extrajudicial executions and other similar threats. 36 Environmental harms differ from these types of violations because they do not involve the use of lethal force by the state; instead, they often arise from legal activities by state and non-state actors, and are not specifically targeted at individuals. 37 While the right to life has more recently been interpreted in some jurisdictions to encompass longer term and latent harms leading to the eventual deprivation of life and/or very serious injury, given its provenance and relatively restrictive interpretation to date, the ACJ is of the view that reliance on the right to life is insufficient to address environmental harms in all relevant circumstances. Background The Right to Life in Human Rights Treaties The right to life is protected in a variety of international and regional instruments including the UDHR (Art. 3), the ICCPR, (Art. 6), and CROC, (Art. 6), and in various regional instruments including the European Convention on Human Rights (Art. 2), the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (Art. 1); the American Convention on Human Rights (Art. 4); and the African (Banjul) Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Art. 4). Positive Obligations to Protect the Right to Life Article 2 of the ICCPR obliges the State to “respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognised in the present Covenant”. 38 The obligation to ‘respect’ rights is interpreted as requiring States not to violate human rights 34 Asia Pacific Forum, above n 4, 56. ICCPR , Art. 4(2). Asia Pacific Forum, above n 4, 56–7. 37 Ibid 58. 38 ICCPR, Art. 2(1). 35 36 - 17 -