I. INTRODUCTION The right to a healthy environment is today one of the most dynamic and rapidly evolving areas of contemporary international law. It is no longer an abstract or exclusively ecological concept, but rather a fundamental pillar that permeates the entire system of human rights protection2. The progressive affirmation of this right reflects the growing awareness that the environmental dimension constitutes the essential material foundation for the effective enjoyment of all other fundamental rights. In a global context marked by the climate crisis, accelerated biodiversity loss, and widespread ecosystem pollution, the right to a healthy environment emerges as a conditio sine qua non for the exercise of the rights to life, health, housing, and human dignity. As effectively emphasized by the most authoritative international legal scholarship, environmental protection is no longer a luxury for affluent societies, but rather an existential necessity for all of humanity3. The global justice dimension that characterizes environmental law becomes particularly evident when considering that the effects of environmental degradation are deeply unequally distributed among the world’s populations. The most vulnerable communities—often those who have contributed the least to environmental deterioration—suffer disproportionately from pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss4. This asymmetry frames the right to a healthy environment not only as a technical-legal matter, but as an ethical imperative of planetary scale. This paper aims to reconstruct the historical and legal evolution of the recognition of the right to a healthy environment, analyzing its roots in international law, its development through major international summits, and its gradual affirmation in national and supranational legal systems. Particular attention will be given to the recent case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the innovations introduced by the 2022 constitutional reform in Italy. 2 United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/76/300 of 28 July 2022, “The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment”. 3 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, UN Doc. A/HRC/37/59, 24 gennaio 2018, disponibile su https://www. ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc3759-report-special-rapporteur-issue-human-rights-obligations 4 Ibidem. 128 GINEVRA GELSOMINI
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