Considering the causal link between obligations and duties States are supposed to assume under international environmental law and the right to a healthy environment by which individuals are legitimately entitled to benefit from effective jurisdictional guarantees, the 2022 declaration needs to recognize the domestic court as the primary judicial authority to ensure that States comply with their international environmental commitments.
Such a political declaration would support and reinforce the jurisdictional guarantees requirements provided by the article 9 of the Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters, of June 25th, 1998 and the Goal 16 of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development
Concerning more precisely climate change matters, this declaration would also be on line with the Oslo Principles on Global Climate Change Obligations drafted on March 30th, 2015 by legal and climate experts, which call for fair proceedings adjudicated by independent courts or tribunals holding effective decisions.
In this regard, the 50th anniversary of the Stockholm Conference is a wonderful opportunity. It could promote and implement environmental justice as an essential tool to enforce international environmental law and democratize global governance.
The fundamental right to live in an environment of quality announced fifty years ago by the Stockholm Declaration could be, by this way, celebrated constructively for the benefit of all and an enhanced international environmental governance.