Our health is strongly influenced by the surrounding environment: air, water, and climate. Therefore, our right to health is also inseparably linked to our right to a healthy environment.
The right to a healthy environment is not expressly mentioned in most international conventions. Usually, it is ‘deduced’ from a person’s right to health or the right to private life. But, this does not mean that it is not a separate right in the national legislation of certain states.
The right to a healthy environment includes:
- an adequate supply of safe and potable water;
- access to basic sanitation;
- the prevention of exposure to harmful substances (e.g., radiation or harmful chemicals)
- the prevention of exposure to noise pollution
- environmental conditions that negatively affect health, etc.
On 28 July 2022, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution, recognising the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right.
The Lithuanian Constitution states in Article 54:
“The State shall take care of the protection of the natural environment, wildlife and plants, individual objects of nature, and areas of particular value, and shall supervise the sustainable use of natural resources, as well as their restoration and increase.”
In Lithuania, the protection of the environment and its quality is regulated by numerous laws and Cabinet Regulations, the most important of which are the Law on Environmental Protection, Law on Environmental Monitoring, Law on Environmental Impact Assessment of the Proposed Economic Activity, etc.