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Human Rights and the Environment

Mise à jour: 24 Mar 2023
Human rights and the environment are intrinsically intertwined: a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is essential in the enjoyment of our human rights. On 28 July 2022, the United Nations General Assembly declared that everyone on the planet has a right to a healthy environment. This landmark decision is the result of decades of mobilization of various stakeholders. States must now implement their commitments and scale up their efforts. This page aims at listing relevant information, research, data and/or press releases issued by our partners in Geneva and other institutions around the world.
Human Rights and the Environment
Human rights and the environment are intrinsically intertwined: a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment is essential in the enjoyment of our human rights; whilst polluted, hazardous and otherwise unhealthy environments potentially violate our human rights.
Environmental rights means any proclamation of a human right to environmental conditions of a specified quality. This means that they are not abstract, remote, irrelevant concepts; they are measurable, prominent and functional aspects of society and its ecology. More than 100 countries incorporate constitutional rights to a healthy environment. When environmental rights are violated, people and the planet suffer from reduced health and well-being.
On 28 July 2022, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution declaring that everyone on the planet has a right to a healthy environment. This landmark decision is the result of decades of mobilization of various stakeholders. The resolution, based on a similar text adopted in October 2021 by the Human Rights Council, calls upon States, international organizations, and business enterprises to scale up efforts to ensure a healthy environment for all.
LATEST NEWS
- States must step up climate action now, before it is too late: UN expert | OHCHR | 23 March 2023
Ian Fry, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and climate change urge States to “take drastic action and accelerate climate ambitions without delay, in line with recommendations by the IPCC.”- Brazil: Ratify Regional Environment Pact | Stand with Environmental Defenders in the Escazu Agreement | Human Rights Watch | 23 March 2023
The Brazilian government should submit the Escazu Agreement to the National Congress and rally legislators to approve it, more than 140 Brazilian and international organizations said today in an open letter to Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira.- Open-Letter from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on priorities for human rights-based water governance at the UN 2023 Water Conference | OHCHR | 17 March 2023
In celebration of World Water Day and the start of the UN 2023 Water Conference, the High Commissioner calls on States to address the root causes of the water and sanitation crisis through a human rights-based approach to water governance.- Exploring key human rights issues arising from plastic pollution in the tourism, fisheries, and waste management sectors – through a gender lens | IUCN | 16 March 2023
A new report from the IUCN Plastic Waste Free Islands project answers the question, “What are key human rights issues arising from plastic pollution in the tourism, fisheries, and waste management sectors in the PWFI islands and how do these issues impact men and women differently?”- It’s time to stop threats against human rights defenders and start celebrating the vital work they do | Mary Lawlor | Irish Examiner | 15 March 2023
On every continent, HRDs are achieving amazing success, in democracies and dictatorships, in cities, in forests and in deserts, and often in the face of terrible danger.
The Role of International Geneva
Geneva is the main international hub on human rights issues and the majority of international universal human rights organs are based here.
United Nations Human Rights Council
The United Nations Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system made up of 47 States responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe. It has the ability to discuss all thematic human rights issues and situations that require its attention throughout the year. The UN Human Rights Council meets at the UN Office at Geneva.
Past HRC Sessions
Environment @ HRC51 | Environment @ HRC50 | Environment @ HRC49 | Environment @ HRC48 | Environment @ HRC47 | Environment @ HRC46 | Environment @ HRC45 | Environment @ HRC44 | Environment @ HRC43
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is the leading UN entity on human rights and represent the world’s commitment to the promotion and protection of the full range of human rights and freedoms set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. OHCHR is home for secretariats of international human rights treaty bodies and the UN Human Rights Council.
Volker Türk is the High Commissioner for Human Rights, often known as the UN human rights chief.
Treaty Bodies
The human rights treaty bodies are committees of independent experts that monitor implementation of the core international human rights treaties. Each State party to a treaty has an obligation to take steps to ensure that everyone in the State can enjoy the rights set out in the treaty.
Currently, there 10 treaty bodies that are established by nine human rights international treaties and one optional protocol . The treaty bodies are composed of independent experts of recognized competence in human rights, who are nominated and elected for fixed renewable terms of four years by State parties.
Recently, UN human rights experts also welcomed the impending entry into force of the first environmental human rights treaty in Latin America and the Caribbean, known as the Escazú Agreement, lauding it as a ground-breaking pact to fight pollution and secure a healthy environment. The Escazú Agreement also includes strong protections for indigenous peoples and environmental human rights defenders, at a time when they are subject to unprecedented levels of violence.
Universal Periodic Review
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all UN Member States. The UPR is a State-driven process, under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, which provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfill their human rights obligations.
Aarhus Convention
The Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters, hosted by UNECE, is also devoting a part of its work on the protection of environmental defenders. The Escazú convention in Latin America is working in the same direction.
Special Rapporteurs
Special Procedures
There are other types of bodies on human rights such as the Special Procedures who are independent human rights experts with mandates to report and advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective.
Special procedure mandate-holders are non-paid and elected for 3-year mandates that can be renewed for another term. They help advance human rights, focusing on different themes, some of which are related to the environment.
Right to a Healthy Environment
What is the Right to a Healthy Environment?
The adoption by the General Assembly (GA), the principal policy-making body of the UN, of the resolution recognizing the human right to a healthy environment marked a landmark moment which sends a powerful message that there is widespread, worldwide support for this right – which is already recognized in 156 countries at the national and regional levels.
The resolution on the right to a healthy environment was the result of States’ commitment on environmental issues, many years of advocacy and collaboration by national human rights institutions, civil society organizations, Indigenous Peoples, children and young people, and business actors, among others, and supported by UN entities. Putting rights at the centre of addressing the triple planetary crisis – climate change, biodiversity and nature loss, and pollution – is more important now than ever and an imperative for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
A Historic Resolution at the Human Rights Council
An appeal to the Human Rights Council to recognize without delay the right of all to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment was shared with all member states ahead of HRC45. This appeal, entitled “The Time Is Now“, has been signed by more than 1,150 organizations from civil society, social, environmental, youth, gender equality and human rights movements, trade unions, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities, from more than 100 countries. The call was conveyed at HRC46 in a joint NGO statement.
On 9 March 2021, over 60 nations urged the HRC to recognize the right to a healthy environment, moving a step closer towards adding a new universal human right that also benefits the planet to the list. Simultaneously, the UN Environment Programme delivered a joint statement on behalf of 15 UN entities calling for global recognition, implementation, and protection of the human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
At the 48th session of the Human Rights Council, in October 2021, States recognized, for the first time, that having a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a human right. Resolution A/HRC/48/13 forwarded by the core group on Human Rights and the Environment – Costa Rica, Maldives, Morocco, Slovenia and Switzerland – was adopted with 43 votes in favor and 4 abstentions.
UN special rapporteur on human rights and environment David Boyd has called the HRC’s recognition of the human right to a healthy environment a historic breakthrough that has the potential to improve the life of everyone on the planet.
The world’s future looks a little bit brighter today. The United Nations, in an historical development, has for the first time recognised that everyone, everywhere, has a human right to live in a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Read full article →
A Historic Resolution at the UN General Assembly
On 28 July 2022, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring that everyone on the planet has a right to a healthy environment. This landmark decision (A/RES/76/300), co-sponsored by 117 member States, is the result of decades of mobilization of various stakeholders. The resolution, based on a similar text adopted in October 2021 by the Human Rights Council, calls upon States, international organizations, and business enterprises to scale up efforts to ensure a healthy environment for all. → See countries’ positions
Today is a historic moment, but simply affirming our right to a healthy environment is not enough. The General Assembly resolution is very clear: States must implement their international commitments and scale up their efforts to realize it. We will all suffer much worse effects from environmental crises, if we do not work together to collectively avert them now.
– Michelle Bachelet, 28 July 2022
Recognition in Other Bodies
Council of Europe
In a Recommendation on human rights and the protection of the environment adopted on 27 September 2022, the Council of Europe calls on its 46 member states to actively consider recognising, at national level, the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, as a human right. → Read the resolution
Pollution and Hazardous Wastes
Though integral to almost all sectors of society, the lack of environmentally sound management of chemicals and waste can have long-lasting negative impacts on human health, society, and on the environment. Such negative impacts violate our human right to live in a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. Stakeholders, particularly States and businesses, must ensure that this right is upheld when conducting activities and operations on the ground.
Right to a Non-Toxic Environment
At the 49th session of the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment and the Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights presented a joint report on “The right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment: non-toxic environment“.
The report describes the ongoing toxification of people and the planet, which is creating “sacrifice zones”: extremely contaminated areas where vulnerable and marginalized groups bear a disproportionate burden of the health, human rights and environmental consequences of exposure to pollution and hazardous substances. The Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment presented these findings, highlighting State obligations, business responsibilities and good practices related to ensuring a non-toxic environment by preventing pollution, eliminating the use of toxic substances and rehabilitating contaminated sites. → Read the report.
Toxic Free Talks
The Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights reports every Fall to the Council and to the UN General Assembly on issues related to his mandate. The Geneva Toxic Free Talks aim to harness the opportunity of this moment of the year to reflect on the challenges posed by the production, use and dissemination of toxics and on how Geneva contributes to bringing together the actors working in reversing the toxic tide.
Plastics and Human Rights
Plastic pollution is not only a threat to our environment, it is also a threat to people, as every stage of the plastic lifecycle impact human rights. These impacts include toxic pollution released in manufacturing, exposure to toxic additives in plastic consumer products, waste mismanagement, disinformation campaign about the risks of and solutions to plastic pollution, and more. Human rights principles are thus critical to support legitimate and effective responses. → Read more on plastics and human rights
Air Pollution and Human Rights
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide each year and that 9 out of 10 people breathe air containing high levels of pollutants. In addition, air pollution disproportionately affects women, children and older persons.
Poor air quality has implications for a wide range of human rights, including the rights to life, health, water, food, housing and an adequate standard of living. Air pollution also clearly violates the right to a healthy and sustainable environment.
Air pollution is a preventable problem. The solutions − laws, standards, policies, programmes, investments and technologies − are known. Implementing these solutions will of course entail large investments, but the benefits of fulfilling the right to breathe clean air for all of humanity are incalculable. → Read more on air pollution and human rights
Right to Science in the Context of Toxic Substances
Science provides the international community with knowledge about the risks and harms posed by hazardous substances on human health and environment, and thus enables the elaboration of evidence-based policies to address them. Science-based policies also protect the range of human rights that are compromised when individuals and communities are exposed to hazardous substances and waste.
The UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, in his annual report to the Human Rights Council at its 48th session, focused on the human right to science with regard to the risks and harms associated with the life cycle of hazardous substances and wastes, examining the dynamics and interconnections between scientific progress, the diffusion of scientific information and the science-policy interface.
The right to science, as recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, implies the availability and accessibility of accurate scientific information to the general public and specific stakeholders. In the context of toxic substances, the right to science provides humanity with the tools to confront the severe toxification of the planet and its people. It requires that governments correct scientific disinformation. It implies an enabling environment where scientific freedoms may be realized and where governments foster needed scientific research on toxic substances that endanger human health and the environment. → Read more on the right to science in the context of toxic substances
Climate Change
Climate change is an existential threat for people and the planet. Its harmful effects undermine the full enjoyment and realization of all human rights, disproportionately affecting those who are already in vulnerable situations. Over the past years, the Human Rights Council took on resolutions and discussions on specific aspects of climate change, while Special Rapporteurs contributed with reports on specific thematic angles within their mandates.
Climate Change at the Human Rights Council
The Human Rights Council has contributed to raising awareness of the links between human rights and climate change by successive and targeted clarifications of the ways climate change affects human rights, including through the adoption of a series of resolutions related to climate change and human rights. The OHCHR also published a factsheet on the “Frequently asked questions on human rights and climate change”
Biodiversity
The Human Rights Council’s recognition of the right to clean, healthy and sustainable environment is crucial to tackling the unprecedented biodiversity crisis that is threatening human well-being, human rights and the future of life on Earth, even three decades after the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). It recognizes that the protection of the environment is equally important for the enjoyment of human rights, and that our action to protect biodiversity and ecosystems is critical. As biodiversity loss is caused by human activity, it has enormous implications for human rights and human well-being.
Environmental Human Rights Defenders
Environmental human rights defenders are those who strive to protect and promote human rights relating to the environment. However, evidence suggests that they remain highly vulnerable and under attack across the globe. As the field of human rights obligations related to a clean, safe, healthy and sustainable environment expands, the need to protect those who protect our environmental rights also becomes more urgent.
Geneva Roadmap
In 2020, United Nations programmes, environmental defenders, NGOs and academic institutions discussed how to mobilize the international community towards supporting environmental defenders. Worldwide, they advocate for healthy environments – not just for their own local communities but for everyone. Despite, their efforts, environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs) remain highly vulnerable and under increasing attack across the globe.
While there are various organizations that have implemented different projects to protect environmental defenders and strengthen the usage of environmental rights, some of these initiatives are fragmented. Hence, the UN programmes and partners came together to coordinate existing defender protection programmes and to develop a Geneva Roadmap.
The Geneva Roadmap seeks to ensure the effective implementation of the right to act for the protection of the environment. It aims to provide a collective platform in which initiatives and commitments of governments, civil society, research and academia and private actors can support one another.
With the support of Switzerland, Fiji, Norway, and in collaboration with NGOs and academic partners, the Geneva Environment Network organized side events to the HRC43 in February 2020 and the HRC46 in March 2021 aimed at strengthening the dialogue process of the Geneva Roadmap for the implementation of Resolution 40/11. The latest event identified milestones in 2021 as several events on the international scene offering critical opportunities for the realization of the Geneva Roadmap, both at the regional and global level.
Business and Human Rights
Human rights and the environment are intrinsically intertwined due to the environmental nature of some human rights, which have been progressively more recognized and protected. If we are to tackle environmental challenges without leaving anyone behind, businesses must respect both the environment and environmental rights, and ensure they are not violated in their conduct of business operations and beyond..
As Geneva is the main international hub on human rights issues, where majority of international universal human rights organs are based, this update provides a brief overview on the connections among business, environment and human rights, and the role International Geneva plays in strengthening such links.
Human Rights Day
Every year on 10 December, the world celebrates Human Rights Day, the day when, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This year’s Human Rights Day theme relates to ‘Equality’ and Article 1 of the UDHR – “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” With the principles of equality and non-discrimination at the heart of human rights, this year’s theme aims to address and find solutions for deep-rooted forms of discrimination that have affected the most vulnerable people in our societies. This means reducing inequality by advancing all human rights for all. It means building better, fairer and greener societies that uplift and empower the most vulnerable.
In the face of environmental degradation, including the triple crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, equality for all also means advancing the right to a healthy environment and climate justice. These impacts disproportionately impacts persons, groups and peoples in vulnerable situations, and exacerbate existing inequalities that negatively affect the human rights of present and future generations. In follow-up to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s recognition of the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, International Geneva is taking urgent action to respect, protect and fulfill this right. Such action should be the cornerstone of a new human rights-based economy that will produce a green recovery from COVID-19 and a just transition.
Human Rights Day 2022: Dignity, Freedom, and Justice for All
The 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be celebrated on 10 December 2023. Ahead of this milestone, starting on this year’s Human Rights Day on 10 December 2022, the UN Human Rights Office will launch a year-long campaign UDHR 75 to showcase its legacy, relevance and activism.
In the decades since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, human rights have become more recognised and more guaranteed across the globe. It has since served as the foundation for an expanding system of human rights protection that today focuses also on vulnerable groups such as persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and migrants.
However, the promise of the UDHR, of dignity and equality in rights, has been under a sustained assault in recent years. As the world faces challenges new and ongoing – pandemics, conflicts, exploding inequalities, morally bankrupt global financial system, racism, climate change – the values, and rights enshrined in the UDHR provide guideposts for our collective actions that do not leave anyone behind.
UDHR 75 will bring to life the personal stories of activists who are doing just that by working in their communities to fight against these disparities on various rights issues such as LGBTQI+ rights, the environment and climate change, women’s rights, disability rights, and education rights. UDHR 75 will also share the advances made in these issues and how the Office has made an impact in this work. UDHR 75’s call to action is #StandUp4HumanRights.
United Nations Environment Programme and Human Rights
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) works to advance the inclusive and effective implementation of environmental rights law through, protecting environmental defenders, strengthening legal frameworks, building capacities of relevant stakeholders and advancing universal recognition of the right to a healthy environment.
As environmental issues have grown within the work of the Human Rights Council, there has been an agreement between the High Commissioner and the Executive Director of UNEP. One of the outcomes of this close collaboration is the publication on the response to Covid called: “Human Rights, the Environment and Covid-19”. It gives the keys elements on how the environment and human rights are interlinked in what happened with Covid and also with the development of the Covid response.
UNEP and OHCHR Agreement
In 2019, UNEP and the OHCHR have prioritized efforts to promote and protect environmental and human rights with the signing of a new cooperation agreement. The heads of the two UN bodies agreed that although more than 150 countries have recognized the human right to a healthy environment in their constitutions, national laws and jurisprudence, or through regional agreements, significantly more work is needed to inform policy-makers, justice institutions and the public on the various ways they can take action to uphold this right.
Strengthened cooperation will aim to drive better protection of environmental human rights defenders and their families, who frequently face violence – including killings and sexual violence, smear campaigns, and other forms of intimidation. The partnership will also encourage greater acceptance by leaders and governments of the human right to a healthy environment pursuing efforts toward its global recognition. It will seek to increase support to national governments to promote human rights-based policies, particularly in terms of sustainable management of natural resources, development planning, and action to combat climate change.
To support the growing community of practice between the two entities, UNEP and OHCHR are compiling updates in the Environment Rights Bulletin. It showcases best practices related to processes at the country, regional and global levels of relevance to the human rights-environment nexus. The latest edition published in October 2021 provides global updates and resources, as well as a focused section on biodiversity prepared on the occasion of the opening of CBD COP15.
Human Rights & Environment @ UN General Assembly
During the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, the UNGA’s Third Committee held a dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteurs on the environment, toxics and climate change, presenting their new reports to the Assembly. The discussion included interesting questions from States and insights on advancing the right to a healthy environment. → Read the discussion outcome
- SR Environment Report A77/284: The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment: a catalyst for accelerated action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals
Press Release: Trillions needed to close finance gap on Sustainable Development Goals, says UN expert - SR Toxics Report Report A/77/183: The impact of toxic substances on the human rights of indigenous peoples
Press Release: Exposure to toxic substances a form of environmental violence against indigenous peoples: UN expert - SR Climate Report A/77/226: Promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change
Press Release: Climate change the greatest threat the world has ever faced, UN expert warns - Other reports:
- SR on contemporary forms of racism Report A/77/2990: Ecological crisis climate justice and racial justice
- SR on the rights of migrants Report A/77/189: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
Press Release: States must address impact of climate change on human rights of migrants: UN Special Rapporteur - SR on violence against women and girls Report A/77/136: Violence against women and girls in the context of the climate crisis, including environmental degradation and related disaster risk mitigation and response
Press Release: Climate change is a threat multiplier for women and girls: UN expert
Learning

Introduction to Human Rights and the Environment
UNITAR / UNEP / InforMEA
The Introduction to Human Rights and the Environment course covers the relationship between human rights and the environment; explains the bases for the application of human rights to environmental issues, and the procedural and substantive obligations relating to the environment; and gives examples of constitutions that have incorporated a right to a healthy environment, good practices in procedural and substantive environmental protection.

Environmental Human Rights Defenders
InforMEA
The course focuses on the crisis of the environmental defenders.

Our Rights, Our Planet Online Training
Articolo12 / Children’s Environmental Rights Initiative (CERI) / Terre des Hommes (TdH) / UNEP
The online resource is a free training tool for young people to learn about and stand up for their environmental rights.
Resources
General
- Environment @ 52st Session of the UN Human Rights Council | GEN
- The Environmental Negotiation Leaps of 2022 | Ian Fry | IISD | 16 February 2023
SR climate change and human rights writes on the environmental milestones of 2022 and on IISD’s new report The State of Global Environmental Governance. - The Universal Declaration: a catalyst for environmental human rights action | OHCHR | 7 December 2022
- “When it comes to human rights, we need all hands on deck,” says new UN Human Rights Chief | OHCHR | 17 October 2022
- Human Rights and the Environment | UNEP | 9 December 2020
- The Goldman Environmental Prize Winners 2020 | The Guardian | 30 November 2020
Climate and Human Rights
- Human rights, climate change and migration | OHCHR and climate change
- Status of climate applications before the European Court | European Court of Human Rights | 9 February 2023
- Human Rights and Climate Change | Interview with SR Ian Fry and Therese Arnasen | CB Stories – PCCB Network Podcast | 16 December 2022
- Egypt: UN experts alarmed by harassment of civil society actors at COP27 climate summit | OHCHR | 18 November 2022
- Human Rights implications of COVID-19 response measures in the context of climate change | OHCHR | 16 November 2022
- Secretary-General’s remarks to High-Level opening of COP27 | UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres | 7 November 2022 | Video
- What Does a Human Rights-based Approach to Addressing Loss and Damage Look Like?: Key Demands for the Outcomes of Cop 27 at the Intersection of Loss and Damage and Human Rights | ESCR-Net, Human Rights & Climate Change Working Group, Loss & Damage Collaboration | 1 November 2022
- Egypt: UN experts alarmed by restrictions on civil society ahead of climate summit | OHCHR | 7 October 2022
- Australia should compensate Torres Strait Islanders for climate crisis failure, UN says | | Adam Morton and Paul Karp | The Guardian | 23 September 2022
- Findings of consultations with children and young people informing General Comment No. 26 | Child Rights Environment Report
- Bangladesh: First visit by UN human rights expert on climate change | OHCHR | 29 August 2022
- HRC Advisory Committee Concludes its 28th Session – Advances Work on New Technologies for Climate Protection and on Racial Justice and Equality | 28th Session of HRC Advisory Committee | 12 August 2022
- Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants on climate change, human rights, and migration | A/77/189 | 19 July 2022
- Violence against women and girls in the context of the climate crisis, including environmental degradation and related disaster risk mitigation and response | Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences | A/77/136 | 11 July 2022
- Promoting Human Rights in Climate Action: A Global Stocktake Informed by Human Rights | CIEL
- Climate change expert brings passion, experience to new post | OHCHR | 29 April 2022
- UN appoints first independent expert on climate change and human rights | Interview, UN News | 25 April 2022
- Climate Crisis and Displacement: From Commitment to Action | Platform on Disaster Displacement | March 2022
- States’ Human Rights Obligations in the Context of Climate Change: Guidance Provided by the UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies | CIEL | March 2022
- A UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights & Climate Change? Regional Perspectives | CIEL | January 2021
- The Human Rights Impact of Climate Change: An International and Local Challenge | Michelle Bachelet | Speech at HRC49 Side Event | 14 March 2022
- Addressing the adverse impact of Climate Change on the full and effective enjoyment of human rights | HRC48 Side Event | 15 September 2021
- Safe Climate Report (A/74/161) | SR Environment
- Frequently Asked Questions on Human Rights and Climate Change, Fact Sheet No. 38 | OHCHR
- Concept note of the General comment on children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change | OHCHR Committee on the Rights of a Child
- About General Comment No. 26 on children’s rights and the environment
- Summary of the panel discussion on the human rights of older persons in the context of climate change – Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (A/HRC/49/61)
Biodiversity and Human Rights
- Adopting a Human Rights-based Approach to Ecosystem-based Adaptation: A Contribution to Sustainable Development | UNEP | 23 January 2023
- Advancing a Human Rights-Based Approach to the Global Biodiversity Framework | OHCHR & UN EMG | December 2022
- Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework: Urgent need to protect nature and human rights, say UN experts | OHCHR | 6 December 2022
- Open letter from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework | OHCHR High Commissioner | 2 December 2022
- A Rights-based Path for People and Planet – proposals for realising human rights in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework | Human Rights and Biodiversity Working Group | 30 November 2022
- Integrating Human Rights in National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (working draft) | OHCHR | March 2022
- Human Rights and Biodiversity | UNEP & OHCHR
[العربية] [中文] [ English] [Français] [Русский] [Español] - CBD Human Rights in Biodiversity Working Group Briefs | FPP, CBD Alliance, GYBN, ICCA Consortium, Natural Justice, SwedBio, Tebtebba Foundation, WWF, Friends of the Earth International, CBD Women’s Caucus and Women4Biodiversity)
- Brief 1: Human Rights in Biodiversity working group: Human Rights in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework: Options for integrating a human-rights based approach to achieve the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity
- Brief 2: Applying a human rights-based approach: Guidance on the application of a human rights-based approach in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework
- Brief 3: Implementing a human rights-based approach to biodiversity conservation: What is urgently needed to effectively adopt a human rights-based approach across the implementation, monitoring and reporting of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework
- How to Integrate Human Rights into Biodiversity Conservation in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework | SwedBio
- Human Rights-Based Approaches to Conserving Biodiversity: Equitable, Effective and Imperative” | A policy brief from the UN Special rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment | February 2021
- Human right to a healthy environment for a thriving earth – Handbook for weaving human rights, SDGs and the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework | Stockholm Resilience Centre Handbook | May 2019
- Environmental Rights Bulletin – Special Theme: Biodiversity | UNEP & OHCHR | Third Edition, October 2021
Toxics, Pollution and Human Rights
- Peru: Toxic discharges threaten the health of millions and right to safe drinking water, says UN expert | OHCHR | 15 December 2022
- Ghana: Toxics exposure violating human rights, urgent action needed, says UN expert | OHCHR | 13 December 2022
- Key human rights considerations for the negotiations to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution | OHCHR | 30 November 2022
- Global Plastics Treaty: Opportunity to Protect Rights | Human Rights Watch | 23 November 2022
- German citizens sue government as air pollution hits health | Client Earth | 26 September 2022
- Human Rights Council: Mercury, small-scale gold mining and human rights | Minamata Convention | 22 September 2022
- “Taranto zona di sacrificio”, il manifesto shock dei Genitori tarantini contro l’inquinamento dell’ex Ilva | La Reppublica | 30 August 2022
Citizens and associations held a flash mob in front of the poster that quotes the UN SR Environment report of 12 January 2022. Zaninelli: “The United Nations dossier is passed over in silence”. (Reed also UN SR Toxics Press Release of 13 December 2021) - Polluted planet: UN expert urges ambitious, urgent action to tackle human rights violations | OHCHR | 10 March 2022
- Summary of Interactive Dialogue with SR Environment | OHCHR | 10 March 2022
- Millions suffering in deadly pollution ‘sacrifice zones’, warns UN expert | The Guardian | Damien Gayle | 10 March 2022
- UN environment expert: the world’s toxic wastelands have millions of residents (Interview with SR Environment) | Michelle Langrand | Geneva Solutions | 10 March 2022
- The Right to Live in a Non-Toxic Environment | Marcos Orellana, David Boyd | Rosa Luxembourg Foundation | 18 March 2022
- Toxics exposure: ‘Follow the science’ to protect lives – UN expert | SR Toxics | 21 September 2021
- NGOs affirm the Right to Science is Critical for Protecting the Range of Human Rights | CIEL | 21 September 2021
- Developing a Global Science-Policy Body on Chemicals and Waste
- UN expert slams chemical industries for spreading fake news about risks | Michelle Langrand | Geneva Solutions | 22 September 2021
Right to a Healthy Environment
- UN Special Rapporteur calls for accelerated, gender-transformative climate and environmental action | IUCN | 3 March 2023
- What is the Right to a Healthy Environment? | UNDP, OHCHR, UNEP | 5 January 2023
- Environmental Justice: Securing Our Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment | UNDP | 17 June 2022
- What now? Options for next steps following UN recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment | Marc Limon | URG | 7 November 2022
- Does the right to a healthy environment need a treaty? | Michelle Langrand | Geneva Solutions | 21 October 2022
- Setting a Roadmap for a Feminist Green Transformation: Using Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights as Guiding Tools for a Gender-Just Transition | GI-ESCR | 3 October 2022
- Marshall Islands takes US nuclear legacy to the Human Rights Council | Michelle Langrand | Geneva Solutions | 3 October 2022
- Committee of Ministers calls on member states to recognise the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right | Council of Europe | 27 September 2022
- UNGA Declaration on the Right to a Clean and Healthy Environment and what this could mean for us in Africa | Dale Pascal | Natural Justice | 8 September 2022
- Press conference by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet | 25 August 2022
On her last press conference as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, speaks about the work of the office in advancing the recently recognized human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. - What companies need to know about the new human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment | Catie Shavin | GBI | 4 August 2022
- Is the U.N. declaration on a ‘human right to a healthy environment’ a meaningless gesture? | William F. Felice | Tampa Bay Times | 16 July 2022
- UN General Assembly declares access to clean and healthy environment a universal human right | UN News | 28 July 2022
- The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment | A/RES/76/300 | UN General Assembly | 28 June 2022
- The UN just declared a universal human right to a healthy, sustainable environment – here’s where resolutions like this can lead | Joel E. Correia | The Conversation | 5 August 2022
- With 161 Votes in Favour, 8 Abstentions, General Assembly Adopts Landmark Resolution Recognizing Clean, Healthy, Sustainable Environment as Human Right | UN News | 28 July 2022
- Why the UN General Assembly must back the right to a healthy environment | Interview with SR Environment | UN News | 22 July 2022
- Historic UN resolution recognizes healthy environment is a human right | UNDP | 28 July 2022
- Emergency Measure: Making a Healthy Environment a Human Right | Katie Puckett | The Possible | June 2022
- Environment: Millions of lives at stake amid unprecedented challenges – UN experts | Stockholm+50 Press Release | SR Environment, SR Toxics, SR Indigenous Peoples, SR Climate Change | 30 May 2022
- Catastrophic environmental impacts of conflicts jeopardize human rights around the world – UN expert | World Environment Day Press Release | SR Environment | 3 June 2022
- Major win for environmental rights at UN Human Rights Council | Geneva Solutions | 8 October 2021
- Why all human rights depend on a healthy environment | David Boyd | The Conversation | 27 October 2020
Human Rights Defenders
- HRC52: Support consensus renewal of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders | ISHR | 27 February 2023
- Costa Rica pulls back on U.N.-backed climate agreement named in its honor | Alvaro Murillo | Reuters | 2 February 2023
- Here’s How We Protect Earth’s Defenders | Mie Hoejris Dahl | Atmos | 4 January 2023
- UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders presents his vision for mandate to ensure protection under the Aarhus Convention | UNECE | 24 November 2022 | [Full statement presented by SR Michel Forst on 23 November 2022]
- Environmentalists in danger | DW Documentary | 29 October 2022
- A deadly decade for land and environmental activists – with a killing every two days | Global Witness | 29 September 2022
- UN experts slam Belarus for exiting environmental rights convention | Michelle Langrand | Geneva Solutions | 11 August 2022
- Understanding and responding to the protection needs of climate activists and movements | URG | May 2022
Responding to the Needs of Environmental Defenders and Civil Society | UNEP | 22 April 2020 - Human Rights Council Discusses the Right to Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment and Foreign Debt | OHCHR | 2 March 2020
- University of Geneva: Workshop and Public Roundtable – Supporting Environmental Defenders
- ICCA Consortium supports the global movement for indigenous peoples’ & local communities’ collective territories of life (ICCAs). These are under increasing threat, as are their custodians. The Consortium is attempting to respond via several initiatives.
- International Land Coalition: a global alliance of civil society & intergovernmental organizations working together to realize land governance for & with people at country level, responding to needs & protecting rights of those who live on & from the land.
- In 2018, UNEP launched the Promoting Greater Protection for Environmental Defenders Policy.
- In 2018, UNEP also launched the Environmental Rights Initiative, aiming at bringing environmental protection nearer to the people by assisting state and non-state actors to Promote, Protect and Respect Environmental Rights.
- Environment-rights.org is a collaborative resource portal for environmental human rights defenders. It is designed as a ‘living’ platform, constantly updated and expanded.
- Not1More (N1M) is an environmental campaign group founded in 2016 that supports frontline environmental defenders and investigates the root causes of environmental conflict.
- The Zero Tolerance Initiative, launched in 2019, seeks to address violence, intimidation and killings of indigenous people & other human rights defenders in global supply chains.
Business and Human Rights
- Human rights and environmental due diligence laws crucial to combat irresponsible business activities – UN expert | 4 July 2022
The Special Rapporteur launched a brief containing a set of recommended elements for human rights and environmental due diligence laws.
Other Themes
- Armed Conflicts, Environment and Human Rights | Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue | 20 October 2022
GEN Resources
2022
- Challenges on the economic, social, cultural, and environmental situation in the Philippines | UPR41 | 9 November 2022
- Environment @ 51st Session of the UN Human Rights Council | Geneva Environment Network | 12 September 2022
- Human Rights and the Environment: Meeting on Activities Related to 51st Session of the Human Rights Council | Info-sharing Session | 6 September 2022
- Geneva Toxic Free Talks | 21 – 22 September 2022
- HRC51 Side Event | Protecting the Frontline: Good practices to support environmental human rights defenders across the world | UNEP, OHCHR, URG, GEN | 5 October 2022
- Environment @ 50th Session of the UN Human Rights Council | Geneva Environment Network | 12 June 2022
- The Rights Holders’ Challenges Facing Climate Change | HRC50 Side Event | GeCCco & GEN | 24 June 2022
- Clean Energy with Clean Conscience: The Importance of Human Rights, Health and Well-Being When Transitioning to Clean Energy for Sustainable Development | OHCHR, WHO, ISHR, 2050Today, Franciscans International & GEN | 1 June 2022
- Stockholm+50 & Geneva | Geneva Environment Network | 2 June 2022
- Geneva Stockholm+50 Dialogues | Jobs and a just transition for all in a healthy planet | ILO & GEN | 22 April 2022
- Celebrating the Right to a Healthy Environment: 50 Years of the Stockholm Declaration | Switzerland & GEN | 30 May 2022
- A Step Forward for Environmental Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean | 1st Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Escazu Agreement in Santiago de Chile (20-22 April 2022) | Earthjustice, GEN, European ECO Forum | 19 April 2022
- Environment @ 49th Session of the UN Human Rights Council | Geneva Environment Network | 1 April 2022
- Conservation NGOs at risk | The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and shrinking environmental civic spaces | University of Geneva, IUCN CEESP & GEN | 9 March 2022
- Geneva Stockholm+50 Dialogues | The Human Rights Council Contributions to Protecting Human and Natural Environment | France, Costa Rica, Earthjustice & GEN | 30 March 2022
- Towards the Convention of Biological Diversity Resumed Sessions of SBSTTA-24, SBI-3 and WG2020-3 | Geneva Environment Network | 8 April 2022
- CBD Side Event | How Can the New Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) Be a Tool for Strengthening Rights-Based Forest Protection and Increased Funding for Indigenous Peoples? | Rainforest Foundation Norway, Forest Peoples Programme, Norway, GEN | 18 March 2022
- CBD Side Event | Applying a Human Rights-based Approach in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework | SwedBio, Forest Peoples Programme, GYBN, ICCA Consortium, IIFB, W4B, UNEP, WWF, Natural Justice, OHCHR, CBD & GEN | 19 March 2022
- CBD Side Event | Integrating Human Rights in the Future of Biodiversity Action | OHCHR & GEN| 22 March 2022
2021
- Environment @ 48th Session of the UN Human Rights Council | Geneva Environment Network | 8 October 2021
- HRC48 Side Event – Plastics and Human Rights | Geneva Environment Network | 23 September 2021
- HRC48 Side Event – The right to science in the context of toxic substances | Geneva Environment Network | 22 September 2021
- HRC48 Side Event – Addressing the Adverse Impact of Climate Change on the Full and Effective Enjoyment of Human Rights | Geneva Environment Network | 15 September 2021
- HRC46 Side Event – Geneva Roadmap 40/11 – Environmental Human Rights Defenders – Milestones and Opportunities in 2021 | Geneva Environment Network | 9 March 2021
- HRC46 Side event – Human Rights Depend on a Healthy Biosphere | Geneva Environment Network | 5 March 2021
2020
- HRC43 Side Event – Good practices on the Right to a Healthy Environment and Next Steps | Geneva Environment Network | 28 February 2020
- HRC43 Side Event – The Environmental Human Rights Defenders Crisis – Towards a Geneva Road Map | Geneva Environment Network | 27 February 2020