The Pathway of Hope, from Stockholm 1972 to Stockholm+50

The 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment adopted the Stockholm Declaration, which marked the beginning of international environmental law. Its first Principle proclaimed the interrelatedness between humans and nature: “Man is both creature and molder of his environment, which gives him physical sustenance and affords him the opportunity for intellectual, moral, social and spiritual growth.”

Fifty years after the first Stockholm conference, it is only too apparent that international environmental law has failed. Some “trees” have been saved, but the “forest” is disappearing. One of the most revolutionary achievements of the 1972 Declaration was asserting a State’s “responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas beyond national jurisdiction” (Principle 21 Stockholm Declaration). Principle 21 reappeared as Principle 2 in the Rio Declaration, adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit. Probably the most significant provision of both Declarations is the “no-harm” rule, now widely recognized as a principle of customary international law, whereby a State is duty-bound to prevent environmental harm to other States. The problem is that, in practice, the “no-harm rule” does not include the global commons, nor does it include the system that supports life – the Earth System – as an indivisible, highly interconnected, and single whole. The indivisibility of the biophysical unity of the Earth System inevitably leads to the formation of a “community of interests” that must be organized with the goal of restoring and maintaining its well-functioning state.

Watch the video below and learn more about the Stockholm Declaration here.