On 13–14 May 2025, Foreign Ministers from most European countries meet in Luxembourg for the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers meeting. They are expected to make decisions on the protection of human rights and the environment. However, the decisions to be adopted will fall short of what is needed to guarantee the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment to all in Europe.
The Committee of Ministers is the main decision-making body of the Council of Europe. In particular, this week’s meeting offers the opportunity for Member States to respond to the call by academic, UN experts, parliamentarians, , and civil society organizations for the effective protection of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment through the launch of negotiations of a dedicated legal instrument to protect this right under the European Convention on Human Rights (read more on the importance of the adoption of such a legal instrument). While the right to a healthy environment is legally protected by the majority of countries across Europe and recognized by the UN, the European human rights system remains the only regional framework that does not yet protect this right. Over the past three years, technical and political bodies of the Council of Europe have reviewed the feasibility and opportunity for such a legal instrument multiple times and concluded that, in the absence of any legal obstacle, it would be possible to adopt such an instrument, as has been done for other human rights in the past.
However, instead of recognizing the importance of protecting this right effectively and without further delays, the Committee of Ministers is now only expected to continue discussing whether or not to adopt such a legal instrument. This will delay much-needed action and indicates that the ministers will likely continue to review options for a legal or political instrument on the right to a healthy environment. The failure of ministers to take decisive action is ever more frustrating in the light of the urgency of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, and the resulting human rights harms.
The mobilization is growing: the legal protection of the right is only a matter of time
The anticipated absence of a decisive decision in Luxembourg is not a complete setback. While a few governments—like Norway and Switzerland—may have temporarily slowed progress towards the legal protection of the right, they have been unable to stop it. The landmark Klimaseniorinnen v. Switzerland ruling, issued by the European Court of Human Rights over a year ago, also reminds us of the importance of an appropriate legal instrument to protect judges from the growing attempts to delegitimize European democracy. The fact that the option for a legal instrument remains formally on the table allows civil society, parliamentarians, and supportive governments to continue mobilizing further to firmly establish the right to a healthy environment under the European Convention on Human Rights. That momentum will carry forward beyond this meeting.
Other Critical Decisions on the Environment Expected at the Luxembourg Session
The Committee of Ministers is also expected to:
- Adopt the first-ever Strategy on the environment for the organization.This Strategy is organized around five key objectives: 1) integrating human rights considerations in environment-related law and policies, 2) strengthening environmental democracy, 3) protecting Environmental Human Rights Defenders, Environmental Defenders, and Whistleblowers, 4) tackling environment-related crimes, and 5) protecting wildlife and ecosystems. While the adoption of the strategy is welcome, the legal protection of the right to a healthy environment remains urgently needed to provide it with a legal backbone and clear political mandate to deliver meaningful impact.
- Consider whether to establish a transversal multidisciplinary committee to promote and monitor the implementation of this broader Strategy. These discussions are expected to continue in autumn 2025 in the context of budget negotiations. The establishment of an inclusive and participatory committee will be key to promoting the Strategy.
- Adopt a new convention on the protection of the environment through criminal law that will be open for signature by Member States in the near future.The final versions of these decisions will be made publicly available on Wednesday.
We stand for the recognition of the right to a healthy environment in the European human rights framework, to make sure that Europe no longer lags behind in the fight for environmental protection.
Join your voice to ours and call on the Member States of the Council of Europe to protect the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment through an additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights.
