The Recognition of a Right to a Healthy Environment in Cambodia

Abstract

In pioneering human rights instruments, there is no express provision for a right to a healthy environment as environmental degradation was not significant during that era. With the increasing number of environmental cases around the world as well as in Cambodia, environment has become a higher political priority and many constitutions around the world expressly guarantee right to a healthy environment and other procedural rights necessary to implement and enforce the substantive rights granted. Significantly, right to a healthy environment has received substantial recognition and enjoyed constitutional protection in over 100 countries around the world. However, Cambodia is a holdout, as a right to a healthy environment is not sufficiently recognized under its constitution, environmental legislations, or court decisions. Therefore, this research aims at answering a simple question, “Is it necessary to include the explicit provision for a right to a healthy environment in the Cambodian Constitution in order to ensure an effective enforcement of this right?” Responding to this question, this research focuses on the status and historical background of a right to a healthy environment. It further compares the advantages and disadvantages on constitutionalizing right to a healthy environment by referring to practices from countries that recognized this right in their constitutions. It also discusses why Cambodia needs the right to a healthy environment and what is the legal framework of this right in Cambodian Constitution and existing legal instruments. Finally, this research has concluded that expressed inclusion of a right to a healthy environment in the Cambodian Constitution is fundamental for the full enjoyment of environmental human rights in Cambodia because constitution offers broad and powerful tools for protecting the rights of citizens. However, acknowledging that amendment of the constitution would take years to complete, this research proposes two interim measures: (1) an active role by the Cambodian judicial body in interpret existing human rights to include a right to a healthy environment, or (2) an inclusion of a right to a healthy environment in the Draft of Environment and Natural Resources Code of Cambodia.