Sustainable Development and Protection of Environment in the European Convention on Human Rights

Abstract

The concept of sustainable development is multidimensional. It can be thought of as actions taken at the social, environmental, and economic levels to ensure that the needs of future generations are met like those of current generations. Sustainable development appears in numerous acts at national and international levels. The most comprehensive approach to this issue was presented by UNESCO, which presented a list of seventeen sustainable development goals. The implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals is also an objective of the Council of Europe. The body of particular importance for their implementation is the ECtHR. This article addresses only a selected issue relating to one of the tasks of sustainable development, i.e., environmental rotection. The Convention does not contain provisions relating to environmental protection. Nevertheless, the ECtHR directly refers to environmental issues in its case law. The text considers how the Court tries to protect the environment. At least two such situations can be distinguished. Firstly, the Court refers to the possibility of limiting conventional freedoms and rights for the protection of the public interest, which is environmental protection. Secondly, the ECtHR forces states to need to protect the environment due to the inability to exercise the freedoms and rights conventional (in particular those expressed in Articles 2 and 8 ECHR). The text also analyzes the potential effects of complaints brought from 2020 on stopping climate change.