Stockholm Declaration
The Stockholm Declaration, issued in 1972 during the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, represents a pioneering effort to establish principles for global environmental governance and recognize the right to a healthy environment as a fundamental human right. This conference, held in Stockholm, Sweden, was the first of its kind and led to the development of international frameworks aimed at addressing environmental issues and promoting sustainable development. The Declaration encompasses a series of principles emphasizing the interconnectedness of human rights and environmental well-being, asserting that individuals have the right to live in an environment conducive to dignity and health.
Among the key features of the Declaration are its calls for international cooperation, the necessity of addressing environmental degradation, and the importance of socioeconomic development in achieving environmental goals. It also underscores the responsibility of states to manage their resources sustainably while preventing harm to other nations’ environments. The Declaration spurred the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which continues to guide international environmental policy and support developing countries in implementing sustainable practices. Overall, the Stockholm Declaration laid the groundwork for subsequent global environmental initiatives, including the UN Earth Summit and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, marking a significant step in recognizing and addressing the challenges of climate change and environmental degradation on a global scale.
Stockholm Declaration
DATE: Issued June 16, 1972
Presented by the UN Conference on the Human Environment, the Stockholm Declaration put forth principles that might guide the world’s nations to preserve and enhance the human environment, while recognizing that a healthy environment is a human right.
Definition
In 1968, the notion of holding an international conference on the environment was brought to the fore by the United Nations Economic and Social Council at its forty-fifth session. A council resolution underscored the immediate need for intensified action at the national and the international levels to contain and, if possible, halt the continuous deterioration of the human environment. The UN General Assembly, at its twenty-third session, endorsed the council’s recommendations. As a result, the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment was convened on June 5-16, 1972, in Stockholm, Sweden. The importance of the Stockholm conference was threefold: It was the first global conference on the human environment; it was the predecessor of the first U.N. Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992; and it acknowledged the need to articulate “third generation human rights,” those that go beyond the merely civil and social. Such rights are legally difficult to enact, but the conference endorsed them in the Stockholm Declaration, which recognized a human right to a “healthy environment.”
Summary of Provisions
The framers of the Stockholm Declararios considered the need for a common outlook and shared principles for various international environmental issues, including human rights as proclaimed in the first article, “[b]oth aspects of man’s environment, the natural and the man-made, are essential to his well-being and to the enjoyment of basic human rights, the right to life itself.” The first Principle of the Declaration echoes this sentiment:
Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment that permits a life of dignity and well-being, and he bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations.
Principle 8 focuses on economic and social development as being “essential for a favorable working environment …necessary for the improvement of the quality of life.” Principle 9 declares
Environmental deficiencies generated by the conditions of underdevelopment and natural disasters …can best be remedied by accelerated development through the transfer of financial and technical assistance as a supplement to the …developing countries and such timely assistance as may be required.
The twenty-first of the Declaration Principles is the best known, and it is believed by many international legal scholars to be the foundation for much of the environmental diplomacy that has occurred since Stockholm because it acknowledges that states have,
…in accordance with the Charter of the UN and the principles of international law …the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental policies, and the responsibility to ensure that activities within their own jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States ….
Other principles stress the need for scientific research and technology, education for youth and adults alike, rational planning, and international cooperation to protect the global environment.
In addition to the declaration, an action plan comprising 109 recommendations was put forth at Stockholm. The plan encompassed six general topics, including educational, informational, and sociocultural aspects of the environment. For example, recommendation 95 called for
providing countries with …technical and financial assistance in preparing national reports on the environment, in setting up machinery for monitoring environmental development …and drawing up national social, educational and cultural programmes.
Recommendation 96 called for the secretary-general and the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) “to establish an international programme in environmental education …directed toward the general public.” Other recommendations addressed the need for financial support, as well as management of “global pollution, natural resources, and human settlements.” However, while development was included as a Stockholm conference agenda issue, it was not dealt with until UNCED in 1992.
Significance for Climate Change
The first international conference of its kind, the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment focused attention on the need for global collaboration to decrease general and marine pollution, and created environmental monitoring networks both regional and global, providing the framework for future environmental collaboration that led to the establishment of the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) for which Canadian Maurice F. Strong served as the first executive director. UNEP continues to coordinate U.N. environmental activities, helping developing countries implement environmentally sound policies by encouraging sustainable environmental practices. Importantly, the Stockholm Conference and the scientific conferences on the environment that it preceded significantly influenced the environmental policies of the European Community, later the European Union.
As an example, in 1973, the European Union established the Environmental and Consumer Protection Directorate and the first Environmental Action Program. The Stockholm Conference was the predecessor of the first UN Earth Summit, which specifically focused on the environment alongside development, and put forth the notion of as a necessary component of climate change. Importantly, UNCED produced the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a most significant treaty with a mission of stabilizing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at a level that might prevent disruption of the Earth’s climate, such as global warming. Originally a legally nonbinding document, the treaty included provisions for updates called “protocols,” the best known being the legally binding Kyoto Protocol, which established specific limitations for GHG emissions for developed nations.
Bibliography
Bhatt, S. The UN Stockholm Declaration of 1972 on the Human Environment: A Global and Federal View of Environmental Protection. New Delhi: Hamdard University, 1999.
Nordquist, M., J. N. Moore, and S. Mahmoudi, eds. The Stockholm Declaration and Law of the Marine Environment. Amsterdam: Martinus Nijhoff, 2003.
"One Earth, One Security Space: From the 1972 Stockholm Conference to Stockholm+50 and Beyond." Stockholm Environmental Institute, 22 Nov. 2022, www.sei.org/perspectives/one-earth-one-security-space/. Accessed 17 Dec. 2024.
Van Ginkel, H., B. Barrett, J. Court, and J. Velasquez. Challenges for the United Nations in the New Millennium. New York: New York University Press, 2002. T