The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on July 28, 2022, to declare the ability to live in “a clean, healthy and sustainable environment” a universal human right. That is why advocates argued for the U.N. to declare a right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. The Human Right to WaterVoluntary human rights declarations can also be instrumental in changing state policy and providing people with new political tools to demand better conditions. Tools for ChangeU.N. declarations of human rights are aspirational norms that seek to ensure a more just and equitable world. Much of that work examines dynamics of large-scale infrastructure development, expanding extractive frontiers, deforestation, Indigenous rights, territorialities, and social movements.