Ship Recycling and the Right to a Healthy Environment

Abstract This article analyses the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal and International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (Hong Kong Convention) and shows that these agreements lay down environmental obligations – and sometimes corresponding rights – for States regarding the protection of health and the environment. Predictably, they do not envisage rights for the victims of environmental violations. Despite inherent and persistent limitations of international human rights in general and environmental rights in particular, a human right to a healthy environment may contribute in several ways to better environmental protection in the ship recycling sector. Importantly, the human rights-based approach to the environmental and health standards in ship recycling may reduce the troubling divergence between the Basel and Hong Kong frameworks and increase the minimum standards for sound and safe recycling, bringing it in line with European requirements.