Analysing the Scope of Right to Life: Global and Indian Landscape

Abstract

Right to Life is an intrinsic and an indispensable natural, human and a fundamental right, provided not only in our Constitution, but also in various other international conventions such as the Stockholm Declaration, Universal Declaration of Human Rights among others. When discussed, one may realise, that the concept of Right to Life is merely a very broad spectrum with many such auxiliary rights- one of them being the Right to Healthy Environment. The ironic dichotomy of this however is that the very environment which is considered an innate human right is being abused and sabotaged by the very humans who depend on it. The researcher through this article aims to trace back in time and outline the evolution of environmental law in light of human rights and then narrows down the discussion to Right to life as an inalienable and innate right, irrespective of its statutory backing. The article upon introducing the topic, transitions to giving a global and a local perspective by highlighting the precedents laid in the past with the respect to Right to Environment as a part of Article 21 of the Constitution.