From Non-Discrimination to Substantive Equality: The Shift of Women’s Rights to Environment in International Human Rights Law

LU Haina* & HUANG Yizhen**

Abstract: The evolution of international norms governing right to environment reflects a shift from formal equality to substantive equality. In the early stages of the development of right to environment, attention to women was mainly manifested in a general declaration of the principle of non-discrimination, which gradually developed into a subject-oriented approach to the protection of specific groups. With the confirmation of the independent human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment by a series of UN resolutions, women’s subject status as a rights holder under this issue has been practically recognized and continuously strengthened in the judicial practice of right to environment and in the context of new global issues. This shift has important implications for the implementation of China’s Ecological and Environmental Code. A systematic examination of relevant norms, practices, and theories in international human rights law can reveal the current international trends in protecting women’s right to environment and existing structural deficiencies, thus providing theoretical support for the improvement of right to environment protection system and the realization of substantive equality in China.

Keywords: right to environment ·  substantive equality ·  women’s subject status ·  principle of non-discrimination ·  protection of the rights of specific groups