Right to Energy

The ‘human right to energy’ might be a relatively unknown human right to most international human rights law scholars and practitioners, but attention to this right has steadily increased in recent years in literature, policy practice and avocacy (see also Hesselman, Varo, Laako 2019; Hesselman, Varo, Thomson, Guyet 2021). Especially, support for a more ‘autonomously’ formulated new ‘right to energy’ in theory has been caught up by support in legal practice, whether in response to concerns about energy marketization, disconnections, price setting, energy poverty, or the (just) energy transition.

This contribution discusses recent legal developments in international, regional and national law, highlighting the breadth of legal practice on the ‘right to energy’ so far, as well as remarkable variations in formulations, and different associated entitlements and obligations. Especially, it considers support for the recognition of a right to energy/electricity under Article 14 CEDAW, Article 11 ICESCR, OAS law and customary law, and details evidence of recognition in national constitutional law and jurisprudence, with particular emphasis on Global South nations, especially in Latin-America and Asia. The paper builds on previous early attention to the idea of energy as a human right (Tully 2006; Bradbrook and Gardam 2006; Ngai 2012), but bringing new evidence regarding actual legal developments in recent years.

This contribution firmly concludes that the idea of a ‘right to energy' is no longer just an ‘idea’, but also an actual legal development, whose time has come. It agrees that the ‘recognition of the right to energy as an independent human right should only be a matter of time, but not of principle’, even if some definitional challenges and questions may still exist, e.g. as the right compares to the 'right to water', or correlates to other rights, e.g. health, housing, or life with dignity. Further research on the current breadth and depth recognition and debates in national (constitutonal )law is especially welcome, as is the articulation of possible content of legal rights and obligations for States, and the practical implementation of the right in different contexts.