Almost one hundred years after its founding in 1919, and seventy years after the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the Italian League of Human Rights (Lidu Onlus) will include environmental protection, sustainable development and environmental education in its institutional duties. To do so, the Osservatorio sull'Ambiente per il Governo del Territorio (“Environment Observatory for the Government of the Territory”) was founded. Several references to environmental protection can be found in the Italian Constitution as well as in other international legal instruments such as the Rio Declaration. However, the only legally binding international instrument is the Aarhus Convention. This treaty requires states to help protect the right of every person of present and future generations to live in an environment adequate to his or her health and well-being through access to information, participation in decision-making and access to justice. Based on this, the establishment of the Environment Observatory at Lidu aims to stimulate the conscious participation of the community in decision-making in environmental matters.
