Realising the Right to a Healthy Environment in Australia

In July 2022, the United Nations General Assembly formally recognised the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. However, much work is needed to implement such a right in Australia. An online symposium on 6 October 2022, ‘Realising the Right to a Healthy Environment in Australia: Prospects and Pitfalls’, organised by Julia Dehm (LaTrobe), Cristy Clark (Canberra), and Beth Goldblatt (UTS), considered the implications of the UN Resolution for Australia. The symposium included presentations by Chief Justice Brian Preston of the NSW Land and Environment Court, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in the context of climate change, Ian Fry, Indigenous environmental scholar, activist and leader, Professor Anne Poelina, as well as academics and legal practitioners.

To view the recording of the event’s three speaker panels, visit the playlist here.

For further reading, view an opinion piece on the right to a healthy environment by the symposium’s organisers here and other symposium articles by:

Bridget Lewis: 'Standing to enforce the right to a healthy environment: what are the barriers and do they matter?'

Bruce Lindsay: 'Is Rights-Based Climate Litigation Possible in Australia?'

Costa Avgoustinos: 'Does an Implied Right to a Healthy Environment already exist in the Constitution?'