The Rights of Nature

Since 2022, the right to a healthy environment has been recognised as a human right by the United Nations General Assembly. However, it is not embodied in a binding international treaty, unlike conventional human rights, which cover economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights. Yet all these rights, as well as the emerging rights of nature, are interconnected at multiple levels. In order to explore these links and the issues they raise, AFD has carried out a number of analytical and prospective studies on the topic of human rights and sustainable development.

It is now widely recognised that the global ecological crisis (of the climate, environment and living entities as a whole) has major, multidimensional consequences for human rights, particularly for the poorest populations and in the most vulnerable countries. It is therefore necessary to integrate a human rights-based approach into any action that aims to mitigate these crises. Conversely, an approach based on human rights that does not take account of ecological issues presents a potentially destructive risk for living entities. We therefore need to move away from an overly anthropocentric approach to adopt an ecocentric logic, which considers living entities – human and non-human – as a whole.

The recognition of the rights of nature is one of the key levers of action of the international community and its member countries if they are to play their part in this transformational dynamic. The development community can also play a decisive role in nurturing this movement. This is what this publication aims to highlight.