The Right to a Healthy Environment and Deep Seabed Mining

An Examination of Potential Avenues Under International Law to Address the Human Rights and Environmental Implications of Deep Seabed Mining in the Area

People

Researcher

• Fatimazahra Dehbi

Background

As global temperatures continue to rise and threaten all life on earth, attention has turned to the deep seabed beyond national jurisdiction (the Area) as a potential source of minerals and metals to fuel our transition to a green economy based upon renewable energy. Whilst the necessity of addressing and mitigating the impacts of climate change on people and planet cannot be understated, fuelling the green transition through deep seabed mining raises concerns given the potential impacts of mining activities on ocean health, marine biodiversity and ecosystems, which will have knock-on effects on human rights. This raises questions as to how to best address such issues within the current regulatory regime under UNCLOS which, whilst providing for the protection of the marine environment, makes little reference to human rights. As a result, state and non-state actors’ implementation of this framework has neglected to fully appreciate the intersecting human rights and environmental impacts arising from deep seabed mining. Drawing on Third World Approaches to International Law and Marxist Approaches to International Law, this project critiques the extent to which the interconnected human rights and environmental implications of deep seabed mining in the Area could be addressed under the international legal framework. As part of this critique, this research project identifies and reflects on the regulatory gaps and synergies between three international legal regimes which are key to this issue: the law of the sea, international human rights law, and international environmental law. Following from this critique, this research project argues that implementing the right to a healthy environment in the deep seabed mining context could provide a way to simultaneously address the human rights and environmental implications of deep seabed mining activities in the Area.  To this end, this project examines how the right to a healthy environment could be invoked and implemented with legally binding effect in the deep seabed mining context by virtue of specific provisions within UNCLOS.

Aims/Objectives

The primary objective of this research project is to examine how and the extent to which the intersecting human rights and environmental implications of deep seabed mining can be simultaneously addressed under international law through the right to a healthy environment.  This objective is informed by two factors. Firstly, that the international legal regulatory context does not currently provide for the consideration of the intersecting human rights and environmental implications of deep seabed mining in the regulation of activities in the Area. Secondly, that there lies potential in utilising the right to a healthy environment in the deep seabed mining context as it provides for engagement with both human rights and environmental implications.

Methods

This research project utilises a doctrinal (desk-based) legal method, which is informed Marxist Approaches to International Law (MAIL) and Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL). Both MAIL and TWAIL are adopted in this research project with a view to: recognising the colonial and capitalist history (and present) of international law; understanding how these inform the practice of international law in the interpretation of legal principles and maintenance of underlying power asymmetries; and guiding this research project’s analysis and interpretation of international legal provisions.

Outcomes

Presentations

 • KCL-UCL 7th Postgraduate Environmental Law Symposium - 21st April 2026, London, United Kingdom: ‘Implementing Environmental Human Rights Norms in the Deep Seabed Mining Context: Does a Potential Pathway Lie in Article 138 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea?’