THE ENVIRONMENT AS A HUMAN RIGHT

THE LIMITS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ADVISORY OPINION 23/17 OF THE INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Abstract

This article analyzes the relevance and limitations of Advisory Opinion No. 23/2017 (OC-23/17), issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in recognizing a healthy environment as an autonomous human right in the Inter-American Human Rights System. The research finds that environmental degradation, expressed in climate change, loss of biodiversity, and air pollution, directly impacts fundamental human rights, highlighting the need to strengthen international legal instruments that articulate environmental protection and human dignity. OC-23/17 represents a legal milestone by affirming that the right to a healthy environment is autonomous and generates negative and positive obligations for States, reinforcing the correlation between sustainability, human rights, and intergenerational justice. However, its effectiveness faces obstacles: the non-binding nature of the advisory function; dependence on state voluntarism; the predominance of environmental soft law; difficulties in internalization in national public policies; conflicts between environmental protection, sovereignty, and economic interests; and the incipient application of extraterritorial jurisdiction for transboundary damage. The article examines the principle of prohibition of environmental regression as a safeguard to ensure that normative advances are not undermined by political or economic pressures. This principle reinforces the intangibility of socio-environmental rights and consolidates the environment as a third-generation human right. The research uses an exploratory qualitative approach, drawing on a review of the literature and documents. It concludes that, although OC-23/17 is a relevant normative advance, its full effectiveness depends on the political will of States, overcoming economic resistance, and jurisprudential consolidation, requiring complementary normative, institutional, and political efforts.