Professor Helen Keller explores environmental protection in ECtHR case law with NaUKMA law students

The European Convention on Human Rights does not expressly recognise a right to a healthy environment. Yet the European Court of Human Rights has gradually brought environmental and climate concerns within the protection of existing Convention rights.

Helen Keller, Professor of Law at University of Zurich and a former judge of the European Court of Human Rights, explored this evolving area of case law during a guest lecture for students of the Faculty of Law at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

The lecture, “The Ecology of Human Rights: European Value or Individual Right under the ECHR?”, focused on whether environmental protection in Europe remains a shared value or can be enforced as an individual right. Professor Keller discussed the “greening” of existing human rights, including the right to private and family life under Article 8, access to environmental information, freedom of peaceful assembly, and access to a court.

Drawing on ECtHR case law, from López Ostra v. Spain and Fadeyeva v. Russia to Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland, Greenpeace Nordic and Others v. Norway, and Cannavatuolo and Others v. Italy, she highlighted both the possibilities and the limits of using human rights law to address environmental and climate harm.

The lecture took place in a hybrid format, with some students joining in person and others participating online.

We are grateful to Professor Keller for sharing her expertise and for her support of our students and academic community. We greatly value this opportunity for our students to engage directly with a leading scholar and practitioner of European human rights law.