Date of Award
Spring 2025
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Political Science
First Advisor
Jacqueline McAllister
Second Advisor
Stephen Van Holde
Abstract
The United Nations first recognized the human right to a healthy environment in 2022, but the idea of a right to a healthy environment emerged much earlier, in the 1970s. This paper uses process-tracing of case studies to examine the emergence of the idea of the right to a healthy environment and the spread of the right domestically, regionally, and internationally since 1970. I test Realist, New Liberalist, and Constructivist hypotheses for the emergence and spread of the right to a healthy environment, and find that the idea of a right to a healthy environment emerged as a result of key ideological connections between the environmental and human rights movements. I additionally find that the right to a healthy environment spread when various actors argued that it was necessary for states to acknowledge the right to a healthy environment alongside other human rights. The worsening climate crisis supported these arguments. The story of the right to a healthy environment provides valuable insight for future advocates of environmental human rights.
Recommended Citation
Salome, Emerson, "The Right to a Healthy Environment: A "New" Human Right" (2025). Honors Theses. 907.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/honorstheses/907
Rights Statement
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