Inter-American Human Rights System

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has recognized the existence of an undeniable relationship between the protection of the environment and the realization of other human rights, in that environmental degradation and the adverse effects of climate change affect the real enjoyment of human rights. In addition, the preamble to the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (hereinafter “San Salvador Protocol”), emphasizes the close relationship between the exercise of economic, social and cultural rights – which include the right to a healthy environment – and of civil and political rights, and indicates that the different categories of rights constitute an indivisible whole based on the recognition of the dignity of the human being.

Much of its litigation has been developed in the context of claims of indigenous peoples and the use of the right to property of indigenous communities to challenge activities destructive of the environment on traditional lands. The recognition of group claims is an important step in the development of a broader approach that recognizes that many environmental claims are a matter of general interest.

=Legal Framework=
 * American Convention on Human Rights
 * San Salvador Protocol

=Cases=
 * Saramaka People v. Suriname
 * Sarayaku v. Ecuador
 * Yanomami v. Brazil

=References=