How are young people advocating for the Right to a Healthy environment?​

Across Europe, young people are demanding what should already be guaranteed: the right to live in a safe, clean and healthy environment. Even though it is high on the agenda of European decision-makers, the Right to a Healthy Environment is merely recognised as a political, rather than a legal right.

But what do young people think about this?

Explore how the Right to a Healthy Environment is being defined in courtrooms and lived on the ground.

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“The Right to a Healthy Environment means living in dignity and equality, in harmony with nature not above it. It’s about recognising that when nature suffers, people suffer too. Protecting ecosystems is protecting our rights, our health and our future."
Statement created at the Symposium on the RtHE in Utrecht, the Netherlands, October 2025.

Youth Perspectives on the Right to a Healthy Environment

This publication showcases youth perspectives on the Right to a Healthy Environment and how young changemakers across Europe turned a human right into local advocacy actions.

  • Explore the key themes shaping youth action:

    Learn how education, intergenerational fairness, local initiatives, and meaningful youth participation strengthened every campaign.

  • Understand the triple planetary crisis through youth advocacy:

    Follow how young teams addressed pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss through creative, community-led campaigns.

  • Learn what young people gained from campaigning:

    Read insights on organising, collaborating, reaching communities, and transforming complex ideas into accessible messages.

  • Future steps shaped by youth experience:

    Discover actionable ideas for strengthening the RtHE, from community projects to creative media and legal engagement. These proposals sit alongside the voices of young people who transformed learning into leadership and local action for meaningful change.

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The Right to a Healthy Environment: A Youth Framework for the Council of Europe

This report analyses the benefits of formal recognition, including the need for an Additional Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to explicitly recognize an autonomous Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment (RtHE).

  • Understand the foundations of the RtHE:

    Get a clear overview of where the right stands today across Europe and how environmental protection connects to human rights, public health, and democracy.

  • See the gaps and the possibilities:

    Explore why the current legal landscape leaves many people without adequate protection against the triple planetary crisis, and how recognising this right could address pollution, harmful climate impacts, and inequality.

  • Explore what the Council of Europe can do next:

    Dive into the main avenues for progress, from policy reforms to new legal tools that could make the RtHE enforceable and effective.

  • Hear from the next generation of legal thinkers:

    Developed by law students at Utrecht University, this publication brings fresh, youth-driven analysis to a field that urgently needs young voices.

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“Young people, within Europe, stand to be the most affected by climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. At the same time, they are active advocates, demanding accountability and sustainable solutions.”
Statement from the publication The Right to a Healthy Environment: A Youth Framework for the Council of Europe

These publications are outcomes of the project Understanding the Triple Planetary Crisis through the Lens of the Right to a Healthy Environment, supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe.

Supported by the Council of Europe through the European Youth Foundation.
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