European Court of Human Rights Issues Landmark Ruling on Environmental Protection and the Right to Life

On January 30, 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered a historic ruling, affirming that states have a duty to protect the right to life from large-scale environmental pollution under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights ( the ‘Convention’).

Traditionally, the Court had addressed environmental harm primarily under Article 8—which safeguards the right to private and family life—but this unprecedented decision establishes that failure to prevent serious health risks arising from environmental degradation, such as illegal dumping, abandonment, and burning of hazardous and toxic waste, can trigger state responsibility for violating the right to life.

Our Legal Advisor, Dr Raffaella D’Antonio, contributed to this legal milestone through a joint third-party intervention she coordinated during her Ph.D. research at Newcastle University. The submission—cited in the judgment—argued inter alia, that states have both a duty to prevent harm and an obligation to take precautionary measures against environmental risks under Article 2 of the Convention. Importantly, the judgment emphasised that scientific uncertainty does not exempt states from taking necessary precautionary measures to mitigate threats to human life.

This landmark ruling is set to reshape environmental human rights’ litigation bylowering the evidentiary threshold for victims of environmental degradation- It reinforces the growing international recognition of the intrinsic link between human rights and environmental protection – a connection that is increasingly fundamental to modern legal and policy frameworks.

At Milieu, we remain committed to advancing legal and policy solutions that safeguard human rights and the environment. This decision aligns with our mission to strengthen environmental governance and to promote accountability in human rights’ protection.

The third-party intervention was submitted jointly by the Newcastle Forum for Human Rights & Social Justice, Newcastle Environmental Regulation Research Group, Let’s Do It Italy!, and Legambiente.

The full judgment is available here.