#TheTimeIsNow

The case for universal recognition of the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment 

16h00 CET, 10h00 EST
Tuesday 23 February 2021

46th session of the Human Rights Council
(side event during the High-Level Segment)
 
Via Zoom 

High-level event featuring speeches by:

• H.E. Mr Jioji Konousi Konrote, President of the Republic of Fiji
• H.E. Ms Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High-Commissioner for Human Rights (TBC)
• H.E. Ms Henrietta H. Fore, Executive Director of UNICEF
• H.E. Ms Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP (TBC)
• H.E. Ambassador Catalina Devandas Aguilar, Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the UN in Geneva
• Mr David Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment
• Mr John Knox, former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment
• Mr Marc Limon, Executive Director, Universal Rights Group

Background

In recent years, there has been growing interest in, and movement towards, universal recognition of the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment (R2E). Over one hundred national constitutions and several regional human rights agreements now recognise this right. This important historical shift is based on a recognition that a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment is necessary to human dignity, equality and freedom. Still, the United Nations is yet to acknowledge that all human beings have the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. This situation might, nonetheless, be about to change.   

This new URG policy report tells the story of international discussions on human rights and environment, human rights and climate change, and the push for R2E, describing the broad normative contours of such a right, and explaining the benefits, for humanity, the environment and the climate, that would accrue from universal recognition. The report ends with a simple recommendation to UN member States: to make a final push to secure universal recognition of R2E, via a Council resolution followed by a resolution at the General Assembly. 

It seems clear that the momentum built over the past five decades, coupled with the large number of countries that have already recognised R2E, and the greater public awareness of the crucial inter-relationship between human rights and the environment that has emerged due to the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, together mean #TheTimeIsNow.

Objectives

The aim of the event is to present the report ‘The case for universal recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment’, by David Boyd, John Knox and Marc Limon; highlight that an important window of opportunity now exists to make a final push to secure universal recognition of R2E in 2021, via a Human Rights Council resolution followed by a General Assembly resolution; show how the content of a human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment has already been largely developed; and discuss how recognition of R2E would contribute to a variety of positive procedural and substantive outcomes, ranging from increased public participation in environmental management, to cleaner air and water.
 
The report will be made available online.