Adrienn TÓTH-FERENCI 55
5. Can Democracy save the environment?
The global pandemic reached Europe at the beginning of 2020 and redirected the attention to the global threats, to the interdependence, to the importance of cooperation and common responsibility. The societies recognised at global level to what extent we are interconnected.
The lessons were drawn, and the World Forum will respond to the world events this year. The conference is exceptional this year also in terms of organisation, as the first event of the program was launched already last November with the aim that that through the campaign “12 months, 1 question” could focus on one topic related to the question “Can democracy save environment?” The ninth Forum is therefore organised in three parts: the formal launching on 18 November 2020, the 12 month-long series of events to be accessible on the WFD website (November 2020 – November 2021) and a 3-day live in-person event in November 2021.
According to the concept note, the Forum seeks the answer to the question, who is responsible for the environmental protection. The national governments, international organisations or the citizens are the actors who are setting the scene? “What is preventing governments from taking more radical steps? Perhaps they are influenced by business and
170 economic interests, or by the demand for increased investment of public money in other areas ranging from infrastructure to pensions to public services” (WORLD FORUM FOR DEMOCRACY 2020). The experience of crisis management during the global pandemic raised the issue of the most suitable government approach to efficiently tackle the environmental challenges and the burden sharing between the public and private sector, is also a question that the 9th Forum intends to answer.
Given that the relevance and added value of the Council of Europe derive from standard-setting activity, the World Forum for Democracy can be considered rather as an awareness-raising tool to direct the attention of all stakeholders, ranging from government to the civil sphere, to the importance of the issue. This spectacular international gathering will spotlight the environment-related challenges and place the issue on the political agenda of the Council of Europe. Therefore, the Forum strengthens and complements the normative efforts of the Organisation to legally regulate the right to a healthy environment.
The 47 member states of the Council of Europe assume the presidency of the main decision body, the Committee of Ministers on a rotational basis. As the procedures and working methods of the Committee of Ministers (CM) specifies “The Chair of the CM is held for a six-month term in turn by the representatives of the members in English alphabetical order. The Chair passes to a new Chair mid-May and mid-November, at a date fixed by the CM based on a joint proposal by the incoming and outgoing Chairs” (IGUIDE 2021, p. 2).
Georgia assumed the Presidency between November 2019 and May 2020 and set as its Chairmanship priority the interrelationship between human rights and environmental protection. The programme of the Georgian Chairmanship recalled that the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) does not mention the environment and it is not specifically designed to provide general protection of the environment as such. In their view, the legal protection from environmental harm is firmly tied to fundamental rights such as the right to life, the right to respect for private life and family life and the right to respect for one’s home. The Georgian Presidency also aimed to strengthen environmental protection work in the Council of Europe through the existing programmes and treaties to secure better human rights protection standards in member states. In this spirit, the Georgian Presidency held an International High-Level Conference on Environmental Protection and Human Rights on 27 February 2020 in Strasbourg. This event supported the organisation by the European Court of Human Rights of an International Conference on Human Rights and Environmental Protection
“Human Rights for the Planet” held in Strasbourg on 9 April 2020 at the European Court of Human Rights (PRIORITIES, GEORGIAN PRESIDENCY 2019).
171 Rik DAEMS, the president of the Parliamentary Assembly also called for the upgrading of the current legal instruments, with the ultimate aim of drafting an additional Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the right to a healthy environment. In this perspective, he presented a three-step plan: the drafting of a recommendation by the Committee of Ministers to the member States on human rights and the environment; a possible convention on this issue setting out some standards; as well as, in the medium term, the drafting of an addition Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights (SPEECH, RIK DAEMS 2020).
The joint declaration adopted at the end of the Chairmanship on 15 May 2020 acknowledges the worrying trend in respect of the climate and the environment, underlines the Council of Europe’s commitment to environmental protection by referring its previous standard setting activity. The declaration proposed to launch a Council of Europe Strategy on the Environment and Human Rights with the aim of supporting member States in meeting their obligations in the field, including in respect of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change. The Declaration finally calls on the Committee of Ministers to elaborate a draft non-binding instrument on human rights and the environment for the possible adoption by the Committee of Ministers at the latest by the end of next year (JOINT DECLARATION 2020).
The Hungarian Presidency scheduled between May and November 2021 also intends to promote the implementation of the Council of Europe's existing instruments in the field of protecting the environment, thus a special emphasis will be placed on the European Landscape Convention and the Bern Convention. International cooperation and mutual assistance to ensure the fundamental right to a healthy environment is also an important part of the Hungarian Chairmanship efforts (KORMÁNYHATÁROZAT 1616/2020).
6. Conclusions
A considerable period has passed since international organisations appeared on the world scene besides the governments, as traditional players. Despite the creation of international organisations, the states remained the main actors of international relations given the simple fact that the new organisations functioned as intergovernmental structures. CAPORASO asked the question right after the collapse of the bipolar world in 1992, “Why has the concept of multilateralism not played a more prominent role in theories of international relations?”. The answer at that time was the lack of good examples or experience, or alternatively, the rise of bilateralism in the period of the Cold War. However, economists were already arguing already at that time that interdependence was on the increase, meaning that questions such as energy,
172 pollution, air traffic, trade and investment could not be dealt with effectively within the national arena (CAPORASO 1992).
Due to these, mainly economic-related phenomena the perception about multilateralism has slowly changed as the influence and role of new players, the non-governmental or non-state actors has increased.
At present, the impact of civil society and non-governmental organisations is undoubtedly high on the activity of intergovernmental organisations. Besides, the governments are obliged to face more and more transnational challenges, the effective management of which go beyond the national competence and require cross-border coordination, indeed global cooperation. The environment is precisely that kind of transnational phenomenon and the fact that only international partnership could bring concrete results is not a recent recognition.
Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Chair of the UN World Commission on Environment and Development wrote in her report already in 1987 that “The traditional forms of national sovereignty are increasingly challenged by the realities of ecological and economic interdependence. Nowhere is this truer than in shared ecosystems and in 'the global commons' - those parts of the planet that fall outside national jurisdictions. Here, sustainable development can be secured only through international cooperation and agreed regimes for surveillance, development, and management in the common interest” (BRUNDTLAND REPORT 1987, p.
179).
After examining the ongoing developments in the Council of Europe related to the environmental protection and its connection to fundamental human rights, it can be concluded that the greatest added value of the Council of Europe is the possible elaboration of a new regulatory scheme. The case-law of the European Court of Human Rights already tackles to some extent the environment-related aspects, but the Organisation also deliberately aims to further and strengthen its norms through guidelines, recommendations, or new legally binding instruments.
In the light of the findings of the present paper, it is fair to say that it is not necessarily the international organisations but rather international cooperation which has the potential to save the environment. However, the international organisations have the means at their disposal to boost the level of interest at all levels of the society so that the public may seriously consider the impact of destruction of the environment. If the awareness-raising campaign is combined with legally enforceable targets, the international organisations, which include the Council of Europe, will have fulfilled their mission.
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