Support the Environmental Human Rights Amendment

Maryland General Assembly: Senate and House Leadership

Our state constitution is our contract between the people of Maryland and the government that represents them. Including the fundamental right to a healthful and sustainable environment in the state constitution changes expectations of both citizens and government about what our collective priorities and mutual responsibilities are.  

The Maryland Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) recognizes "each person's fundamental and inalienable right to a healthful environment" but the policy lacks teeth and is largely dormant.

Legislators depend on their constituents to guide their priorities, so we need your signature on this petition to demonstrate that Marylanders across the state want each person's right to a healthful and sustainable environment to be protected on par with other civil rights.

Below are the main reasons why the right to a healthful environment  needs to be protected in our state constitution.

  1. It is a moral imperative to protect the human dignity of all, and there can be no human dignity in a degraded, harmful environment.                                                                                                                        
  2. The health of the people of Maryland is negatively impacted by environmental pollution and degradation. The health disparities are more egregious in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods where environmental pollution and degradation is concentrated.                                
  3. An Environmental Human Rights amendment would empower all Marylanders, local governments, and the state to protect and defend this fundamental right.                                                                        
  4. A constitutional right would be the foundation for improved laws and regulations, and act as a true guardrail to prevent the most egregious forms of harmful actions now and for future generations, providing environmental justice in our state.                                                                                                  
  5. A constitutional right, as opposed to a regular law, would ensure that environmental protection is considered among the highest obligations of the government, pursued as “a matter of the highest public priority,” (per MEPA) and not merely “good public policy”.

Join us in supporting the Environmental Human Rights Amendment. This petition will be submitted to the Maryland General Assembly Leadership in 2023. We will ask the Maryland General Assembly Leadership to pass the Environmental Human Rights Amendment in 2024 and place this amendment on the 2024 general election ballot.    

Read the petition below and add your name! It will take the will of the people to make this a priority in the General Assembly. Current and future generations are counting on you to sign this petition and make the right to a healthful and sustainable environment a priority for Maryland.  

To: Maryland General Assembly: Senate and House Leadership
From: [Your Name]

We, the people of Maryland, call upon the Maryland General Assembly to pass the Maryland Environmental Human Rights Amendment and thus add this amendment to the 2024 general election ballot.

This amendment to the Declaration of Rights section of the Maryland Constitution would guarantee that each person has a fundamental and inalienable right to a healthful and sustainable environment. It would codify that the State is trustee of Maryland’s natural resources, including its air, lands, waters, wildlife, and ecosystems, for the benefit and enjoyment of both present and future generations.

“Each person’s fundamental and inalienable right to a healthful environment” was established in the Maryland Environmental Policy Act that the Maryland General Assembly passed in 1973.

We, the people of Maryland, believe this right needs to be protected in our state constitution for the following reasons.

1. It is a moral imperative to protect the human dignity of all, and there can be no human dignity in a degraded, harmful environment.

2. The health of the people of Maryland is negatively impacted by environmental pollution and degradation. The health disparities are more egregious in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods where environmental pollution and degradation is concentrated.

3. An Environmental Human Rights amendment would empower all Marylanders, local governments, and the state to protect and defend this fundamental right.

4. A constitutional right would be the foundation for improved laws and regulations, and act as a true guardrail to prevent the most egregious forms of harmful actions now and for future generations, providing environmental justice in our state.

5. A constitutional right, as opposed to a regular law, would ensure that environmental protection is considered among the highest obligations of the government, pursued as “a matter of the highest public priority,” (per MEPA) and not merely “good public policy”.

We, the undersigned people of Maryland, ask the leadership of the Maryland General Assembly to pass the Environmental Human Rights Amendment and ensure this amendment is on the 2024 general election ballot. Give the people of Maryland the right to decide whether the right to a healthful environment is a constitutional priority.