HELP course on the Environment and Human Rights

This HELP course on the Environment and Human Rights is part of a series of courses created by the European Programme for Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals aiming to support legal professionals and to enhance their capacities to effectively and coherently apply European fundamental rights standards at the national level. The protection of the environment and the protection of human rights are interconnected: one cannot be achieved without the other, nor at the expense of the other. Life and well-being on our planet are contingent on our collective capacity to guarantee both human rights and a healthy environment to future generations. A human rights-based approach-using human rights laws and mechanisms in the context of environmental impacts -offers an innovative and evolving tool for environmental protection. A number of international human rights standards, including the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Social Charter, have successfully been invoked in environmental issues. Furthermore, the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the case-law of the European Committee of Social rights affirm the undeniable inter-connections between environmental protection on the one hand and human rights on the other. This course aims at supporting legal professionals and others in understanding the connections between human rights and the environment, in particular how to apply a human rights-based approach to environmental protection. It explores the State’s human rights obligations in an environmental context; provides practical guidance on how a human rights-based approach can be applied to environmental protection; analyses the greening of human rights in regional systems; and offers an introduction to corporate environmental responsibility. The course consists of the following 5 substantive modules: Introduction Key concepts The human rights-based approach to environmental protection Green human rights in regional human rights systems Environmental degradation and corporate accountability. If you are interested in this course or another, you simply need to register in order to access the website resources. An explanatory document is available to make it easier for new persons to find their way around the site. To access the course, firstly you need to open yourself an account at HELP website. Once logged in to the HELP platform you can click here to access the course directly.