Sustainable Development in International Law: History, Normative Consolidation and Value for the Legal Protection of the Baikal World Heritage Site

The article continues the study of the international legal basis of the regime of legal protection of Lake Baikal, supported by the RFBR grant (Project No. 20-011-00618). The origin of the category "sustainable development" is revealed, and the main stages of the formation of perceptions of sustainable development are noted. Particular attention is paid to the basic ideas of the report "Our Common Future", also known as the Bruntland Commission report. Two components of sustainable development under this instrument are noted: needs (present and future generations) and constraints. The normative integration of the concept of sustainable development into international instruments is analysed: the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (Rio Declaration); the Millennium Development Goals; The Future We Want, the outcome document of the 2012 Conference on Sustainable Development; and the sustainable development goals of 2015. A separate block of research is the criticism of the concept of sustainable development developed both in Western (D. Carruthers, I. Bluhdorn, L. Tulloch) and in the domestic (M.M. Brinchuk) doctrine of environmental law. Based on the results of the analysis of the concept, it is concluded that the concept should be used primarily for the organic development of settlements located within the Lake Baikal Natural Territory. In the system of sustainable development goals, the issue of settlement development is addressed in Goal No. 11. In addition, the conclusions of the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Development (Habitat 3) have considerable potential. The article reviews Habitat Outcome Document 3 The New Urban Agenda, briefly compares it with the documents of previous UN-Habitat conferences, describes the content of the New Urban Agenda, identifies the basic principles of sustainable human settlement development, and addresses criticisms of the document analysed in the article. In the final part of the article, the authors analyse the documents on the territorial development of settlements located within the boundaries of the Lake Baikal Natural Territory. The conclusion is formulated that the principles of the New Urban Agenda should be incorporated into the development plans of the above-mentioned settlements, in particular, the principles of the development and introduction of indicators of urban sustainability. A number of proposals are made to reflect the principles of sustainable development in such documents.