The right to property over land in public international law in the light of the global interests of environmental protection and human rights

This research investigates the existence of a human right to property and environmental rights in global and regional human rights law instruments. It shows that there is a link between property rights over land and environmental protection, which is articulated in different ways in the UN system, the ECHR, the African and Inter-American system. The advocacy of a human right to property could aid in the prevention of poverty and, in some cases, contribute to environmental protection. The global UN system barely protects a human right to property. Moreover, the UN human rights instruments do not mention a right to a healthy environment. Provisions of global environmental law fail to overcome these gaps, as no mechanisms for individual complaints are provided. At the regional level, both the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights provide a human right to property. Both instruments are mainly used by regional human rights organs in claims involving violations of indigenous peoples’ rights. The UN also developed a range of instruments in order to protect indigenous peoples’ collective rights. In general, it is admitted that their livelihoods embody the fundaments of sustainability. In Europe, the ECHR protects an individual right to property, which is conceived to be in opposition to the general interest of environmental protection. The latter can be used by states as a reason to restrict property rights of individuals. At the same time, the ECHR, as interpreted by the ECtHR, does not recognise a right to a healthy environment, or a right to generally enjoy one’s property in pleasant surroundings. The African Charter is the only instrument providing a right to a healthy environment that can be invoked in front of the African organs