Access to Electricity as a Human Right

Abstract

This article reviews existing and emergent international human rights law and general international law to identify an individual interest in accessing electricity. The analysis includes the reports of States parties submitted pursuant to several human rights instruments, the opinions of their monitoring Committees, the decisions of national courts and international tribunals, the views of several UN Special Rapporteurs, national legal frameworks and the energy programmes of several States. The emergence of a human right to access electricity under international law is corroborated by the requirements of international humanitarian law, policy trends within the sustainable development agenda and contemporary regulatory efforts to extend electricity services to vulnerable social groups. An authoritative judicial or intergovernmental pronouncement formally recognising this right as an independent one would be timely and appropriate. The paper concludes by suggesting the contours of the right to access electricity and outlining the possible roles and responsibilities of primary actors.