Five Years Since the Recognition of the Human Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment

This reception, convened by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to a Healthy Environment, Astrid Puentes, offered an opportunity to acknowledge achievements, hear diverse perspectives, and renew our commitment to advancing environmental justice and human rights, as we celebrate the five years of the adoption of the Human Rights Council resolution recognizing the Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment.

Order of the Day

Welcome Remarks

H.E Ambassador Mario Zamora Cordero, Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations and International Organizations in Geneva
Abdessalam El Ouazzani, Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of Morocco to the United Nations and International Organizations in Geneva

Additional Remarks

UNEP
Blair Matheson, Executive Director, Franciscans International
Sébastien Duyck, Senior Attorney and Human Rights & Climate Campaign Manager, Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)

Closing Remarks

Astrid Puentes Riaño, UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment

Moderation

Diana Rizzolio, Coordinator, Geneva Environent Network, UNEP

Video

Remarks

H.E. Ambassador of Costa Rica, Mario Zamora Cordero

Hoy conmemoramos cinco años de una decisión que marcó un antes y un después. En octubre de 2021, el Consejo de Derechos Humanos reconoció el derecho a un ambiente limpio, saludable y sostenible. Meses después, la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas lo confirmó, con el respaldo de la comunidad internacional.

Queremos agradecer a Eslovenia, Marruecos, Maldivas y Suiza, que junto a Costa Rica hicieron posible este logro. Su liderazgo y su confianza en el diálogo demostraron que el multilateralismo puede responder a los desafíos de nuestro tiempo.

Un agradecimiento muy especial a Astrid Puentes, Relatora Especial sobre el derecho a un ambiente limpio, saludable y sostenible, y a su equipo, y a sus predecesores, por su trabajo riguroso, su compromiso constante y su capacidad de acercar este derecho humano a las personas.

Este avance no habría sido posible sin cientos de organizaciones no gubernamentales, y sin los Pueblos Indígenas, las comunidades locales, los jóvenes, la academia y tantos otros miles de actores de la sociedad civil, incluyendo, por supuesto, a las personas defensoras ambientales de derechos humanos. Todos ustedes, con su conocimiento, su perseverancia y su voz, protegen el ambiente cada día y defienden el disfrute, la promoción y la protección de este derecho y con ello la de todos los derechos.

Como lo señaló la Corte Internacional de Justicia, recordemos que se trata de un derecho humano que es esencial para el disfrute de todos los demás derechos humanos, incluyendo el trabajo, la educación, la salud y la vivienda.

Como Embajador de Costa Rica, quiero hoy reiterar el compromiso de mi país de seguir al frente de esta labor, desde lo nacional hasta lo multilateral, para implementar en la práctica este derecho humano y recordar siempre, con acciones concretas aquí en Ginebra, que el medio ambiente limpio, saludable y sostenible es esencial para sostener la vida de todos los seres quienes habitamos este planeta.

Abdessalam El Ouazzani, Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of Morocco to the United Nations and International Organizations in Geneva

On behalf of the Kingdom of Morocco, I warmly welcome you all and thank our partners whose sustained commitment has helped translate this right from aspiration into reality.

Five years ago, in this very building, this Council said something it had never said before: everyone, everywhere, has the right to live in a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Forty-three votes and not one against; the General Assembly followed with one hundred and sixty-one. Morocco is proud to have helped carry that text from its first draft.

Tonight we take stock. One hundred and sixty-six States now recognise this right in their law. The International Court of Justice has called it a precondition for the enjoyment of all other rights. A right that some thought symbolic has become a standard that courts apply.

Morocco did not wait for Geneva. Our Constitution has guaranteed a healthy environment since 2011. What has changed since 2021 is the pace: a climate policy ranked sixth in the world and first in Africa, a commitment last October to phase out coal and triple renewables, and a strategy to finance adaptation, because a right without money is only a promise.

The next five years must be devoted to implementation. Morocco is honoured to take the pen for the next resolution of this Council. In carrying this responsibility, we will work openly and inclusively with all delegations, with a view to building the broadest possible consensus and advancing the effective implementation of this right.

We must spare no effort to safeguard the right of future generations to live in a healthy environment as a fundamental human right. Time is of the essence, and this Council is precisely where this right must not only be proclaimed, but also fully recognized, respected and implemented, without delay or hesitation.

United Nations Environment Programme

UNEP is very pleased to be here tonight, among so many of the people who made this possible.

When this Council created the mandate of the Independent Expert on human rights and the environment in 2012, the question on the table was clear: what, exactly, do human rights require of all actors when it comes to the environment? UNEP has been proud to support the mandate from those early days. We worked with John Knox as Independent Expert and then Special Rapporteur, through David Boyd’s tenure, and now alongside Astrid Puentes.

Look at how far that work has come. First came the patient clarification of obligations, theme by theme: clean air, safe and sufficient water, a safe climate, healthy ecosystems, non-toxic environments, healthy and sustainable food. The Framework Principles of 2018 gave all of us a common reference point. And continue to be used. Then came recognition, here in 2021 and at the General Assembly in 2022. And now, five years on, we are in the harder and more rewarding part: implementation, again across many themes and in many places.

We’ve been there for the ups and the downs, for the headline moments and for the more quiet work in between, which is usually where the real progress happens.

None of this was done by one institution. We want to recognise environmental human rights defenders, whose courage gave this work its urgency, and some of whom continue to pay for it in serious ways. We also want to recognise the secretariats of the multilateral environmental agreements, who brought the right into their own processes. And the Member States, many of you here tonight, including the core group, who carried it through negotiations. The Special Procedures and OHCHR have been our partners throughout. And civil society, Indigenous Peoples and young people pushed all of us further than we might have gone on our own.

For UNEP, part of our role has been to carry the right into rooms where it hadn’t always been, including the UN Environment Assembly, and to support countries that want to make it real in their own frameworks and contexts.

So tonight is a celebration, and it’s deserved. Tomorrow the work continues, and we are glad we get to do it together.