The great indoors: linking human rights and the built environment Joshua C Gellers Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, University of North Florida, USA It is widely held that environmental rights are conceived as legal guarantees intended to protect individuals from environmental harms and improve the quality of the environment. However, thus far much of the scholarly attention paid to environmental rights has focused on their application to the natural environment. I argue that, in conjunction with interna- tional human rights regarding housing, health, and water and sanitation, environmental rights should apply to the built environment as well. Through an analysis of international law, case law and scientific evidence, I demonstrate that protecting indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is necessary to the full realization of health, housing, water and sanitation, and environmental rights. This argument has three important implications. First, it pro- vides victims of indoor environmental harms with a rights-based mechanism for redres- sing their grievances. Second, it makes a strong case for the inclusion of green building development in efforts to protect environmental rights throughout the world. Third, by directing policymakers to specific, measurable steps that can be taken to protect environ- mental rights, it refutes the charge that such rights are too ambiguous to be successfully implemented. Keywords: environmental rights, human rights, housing, public health, water, sanitation, green buildings, constitutions, international law, indoor environmental quality 1 INTRODUCTION Legal scholars have long emphasized the role that environmental rights might play in safeguarding or improving the quality of the natural environment for citizens within a state or region, or at the international level. In addition, advocates of environmental justice have typically focused on how outdoor sources of pollution disproportionately affect marginalized groups. 1 The connections between ambient air pollution and health are well documented, and environmental rights are seen as ‘powerful tools’ for protecting outdoor environmental quality. 2 Yet, people across the developed world spend over 90 per cent of their time indoors. 3 Indeed, ‘the indoor realm is 1. G Adamkiewicz and others, ‘Moving Environmental Justice Indoors: Understanding Structural Influences on Residential Exposure Patterns in Low-Income Communities’ (2011) 101 American Journal of Public Health S238, S238. 2. N Guillerm and G Cesari, ‘Fighting Ambient Air Pollution and Its Impact on Health: From Human Rights to the Right to a Clean Environment’ (2015) 19 International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease 887, 887. 3. F Wu and others, ‘Improving Indoor Environmental Quality for Public Health: Impedi- ments and Policy Recommendations’ (2007) 115 Environmental Health Perspectives 953. Journal of Human Rights and the Environment, Vol. 7 No. 2, September 2016, pp. 243–261 © 2016 The Author Journal compilation © 2016 Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd The Lypiatts, 15 Lansdown Road, Cheltenham, Glos GL50 2JA, UK and The William Pratt House, 9 Dewey Court, Northampton MA 01060-3815, USA Downloaded from Elgar Online at 10/24/2016 05:29:02AM via NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION, SHARING or POSTING