The ACT will introduce The Human Rights (Healthy Environment) Amendment Bill 2023 in the coming days to the assembly, which will ensure that residents within the territory have the right to a clean, safe environment.

Under the bill, people will be able to report breaches to a healthy environment to the ACT Human Rights Commission. It is the first bill of its kind to be introduced in Australia, and is seen as a direct progression of a United Nations General Assembly resolution in 2022, which agreed that access to a clean and healthy environment is a universal human right.

The ACT defines a healthy environment as "clean air, a safe climate, access to safe water and to healthy and sustainably produced food… healthy biodiversity and ecosystems.”

The bill will no doubt influence new developments within Canberra’s built environment. No penalties will be issued as yet for any damage or danger to a healthy environment, with the territory’s cabinet deciding to wait and see how other governments overseas react to breaches.

"The legislation introduced today reflects growing international consensus and practice around the role and importance of environmental protections," says ACT Human Rights Minister, Tara Cheyne.

"(The bill comes) at a time when we face a triple planetary threat of climate change, environmental pollution and biodiversity loss."

A submission made by the Environmental Defenders Office to the ACT Government hopes that the laws will extend to private organisations, who too are at fault for the damage of the environment.

"Private businesses are a major contributor to the destruction of ecosystems and the loss of biodiversity, through deforestation, land-grabbing, extracting, transporting and burning fossil fuels," the submission reads.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres says the resolution was made in an effort to assist governments – state, local and federal – in crafting climate policy.

"Global wellbeing is at risk – and it's in large part because we haven't kept our promises on the environment.”

Architecture & Design Team

Canberra-acts-on-Human-Rights-Healthy-Environment-1732010044.png

Let’s connect!