The right to the environment was at the centre of a meeting organised recently in Dakhla by the National Human Rights Council (CNDH).

This symposium brought together stakeholders in the environmental field, including representatives of competent public and private bodies, elected officials, academics, NGOs active in the fields of human rights and sustainable development, in addition to representatives of the CNDH's regional commissions and international organisations from France and Spain.

This meeting, held under the theme: "For the effectiveness of the right to the environment," made it possible to highlight the various dimensions linked to the right to the environment and to demonstrate its contribution to the promotion of citizenship, as an essential right closely linked to other economic, social, and cultural rights. During the meeting, emphasis was placed on the need to define the notion of "right to the environment" and the fields of intervention it covers.

According to a CNDH statement, the symposium's theme revolved around "the correlation between the right to the environment and other human rights," "the right to the environment and international law," and "the right to the environment: what modes of governance, what actors, and what approaches?"

It added that this meeting provided an overview of environmental rights by sector of activity, including urban planning, health, water, and sanitation. It allowed for the exchange of experiences on this theme between stakeholders involved in the public and private environmental sectors, NGOs, and experts, and for the presentation of best practices in the field.

The statement notes that the concept of the right to the environment appeared for the first time on the international level with the declaration adopted in Stockholm in June 1972, on the occasion of the United Nations Conference on the Environment. It has been progressively enshrined by other international conventions or within the framework of national constitutions and laws.

It recalled that Morocco explicitly enshrined in Article 31 of the Constitution the right to a healthy environment, along with the right to access to water and sustainable development. By virtue of the same article, the State, public establishments, and territorial collectivities are called upon to work towards the mobilisation of all available means to facilitate equal access for citizens to the conditions allowing them to enjoy said rights.