UN General Assembly
1990

With respect to human rights, the Government of Costa Rica is deeply concerned over a situation that exists on a world scale. The right to life, granted by the principal international human rights instruments, inevitably includes the right to live in a habitable world. However, the activities of mankind are daily making the exercise of that right an ever-increasingly illusion. If the threat of a nuclear holocaust causes concern, the threat of a planetary ecological catastrophe is much more tangible and imminent. In the most irresponsible manner, humanity is dedicated to destroying its environment and severely compromising its very existence as a species. As is true with actions affecting international peace and security, those endangering ecological security in any part of the world are of concern to all of us. If the international law of our times recognizes more strongly every day that respect for human rights cannot be considered a matter of the exclusive internal competence of each State, that should be particularly emphasized when we refer to environmental rights.