“The climate crisis is the biggest threat to our survival as a species and is already threatening human rights around the world.”

Environmental degradation caused by climate change, armed conflict, or the illegal exploitation of resources can be a catalyst for violence against civilians and breakage to their fundamental human rights including the Right to a safe and healthy environment.

The historical recognition of the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment by the United Nations was a great milestone toward stronger international and domestic efforts to help care for our home, the environment. This resolution acknowledges an ever-present reality for all of us, the air we breath, the food we eat, the water we drink, indeed, our health, wellbeing and survival all depend on a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. This right is also at the core of facing the triple planetary crisis of pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change.

The resolution offers hope to many communities around the world already hard-hit by environmental degradation and climate change. To make the enjoyment of the right, a reality for those most impacted, Franciscans are working in local communities that experience the effects of environmental degradation due to war and conflict. These include communities in conflict and war zone like Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Indeed, one major human contribution to climate change is military activity and weapons that come with it. These activities during conflict generally damage soil, water, and biodiversity. Moreover, the military is a significant consumer of energy, mainly the type derived from fossil fuels. On the other hand, deforestation is frequently a result of military training exercises and installations, which may damage habitats and interfere with wildlife migration routes. Military operations also have a tendency to release contaminants such as heavy metals and chemicals that directly endanger aquatic ecosystems and strain water supplies. The impact of conflict on the environment, particularly on-air pollution, starts with the development and testing of all aspects related to military weapons, hardware, and armament, and the necessary training in its use. The work of the Catholic Church, Franciscans, in collaboration with people of other faiths in the DRC, bears witness to this.

The DRC is entrenched in one of the world’s deadliest civil conflicts with many armed militias currently operating in the country’s eastern provinces (North and South Kivu and Ituri). Approximately six million people have been killed since 1996 and thousands remain internally displaced in eastern DRC. Because of the scale of suffering in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), its conflict has widely been described as the worst humanitarian disaster since the Second World War. Despite a UN arms embargo that has been in place for years, armed groups have been able to get hold of weapons, ammunition, military equipment, and other supplies. This has allowed them to commit war crimes and widespread human rights abuses against civilians. In a 2018 study, the Small Arms Survey (SAS) estimated that 945,784 unregistered firearms were in circulation throughout DRC in 2017.5 These wide-reaching problems contribute to an insecure environment (including food insecurity in most rural areas) with an elevated rate of armed violence; displacement of populations.

The aberrant impacts of armed conflict in the light of the use of weapons on a country’s property, air and water can moreover have unfriendly, long term and far-reaching effects on human populations. Moreover, this armed conflict is harmful to biodiversity and creatures due to habitat destruction and fragmentation, over-misuse and corruption of regular assets and incrementally pollutes land and water. If we have a human right to life and a right to the highest attainable level of health, then the environmental factors that influence both life and health must be addressed – be they access to clean drinking water, to air free from pollution, or to untainted food must be part of the discussion. As such, the States and regional governments need to put in mechanisms to implement the Right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.

First, we need International Human Rights obligations for states to implement the Right to a Healthy Environment. Such conventions as “Convention on Cluster Munitions could help (the treaty that bans cluster bombs and helps ensure that they are cleared and that their victims are assisted). Secondly, the dare needs to protect the environment in order to protect Civilians in conflict zones. We need more formal systems and mechanisms of post-conflict environmental assistance that protect the rights of communities, especially in post-war environmentally damaged places, like the DRC, Somalia, and other places. Lastly, Disarmament is especially important for climate protection.

In Laudato Si, Pope Francis calls for a radical transformation of global affairs based on a cosmopolitan vision of integral security, integral disarmament, and integral ecology. He says “Nuclear weapons and climate change are human problems that require human solutions. Therefore, a new moral vision is needed, one that is as clear as it is radical. Just as the world has banned torture, slavery, and chemical weapons, the world must ban nuclear weapons – even war, itself.”

The world faces interconnected challenges that require holistic and comprehensive approaches. “The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together; we cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to causes related to human and social degradation,” As such we need to implement policies to reduce carbon emissions phase out fossil fuels, switch to renewable energy, increase energy efficiency, promote recycling, develop sustainable agriculture and ensure universal access to drinking water.

We need to continue advocating for disarmament initiatives that contribute to environmental protection, conflict prevention, and safeguarding of the human right to a safe and healthy environment