The Right to a Healthy Environment gains traction at the Human Rights Council | Joint statement
At the UN Human Rights Council, States, civil society and UN agencies are all talking about the right to a safe, clean, healthy environment. GI-ESCR joined 20 NGOs in a joint statement calling for the global recognition of the right to a healthy environment and for human rights to be fully protected in the face of these increasing and intersecting environmental crises.
In a Joint Statement led by Costa Rica, the Maldives, Morocco, Slovenia and Switzerland and co-sponsored by over 55 other states, states observed:
‘There is a global consensus on the degradation of the environment and the consequences it has on human life. …... It is our belief that a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment is integral to the full enjoyment of human rights. Therefore the possible recognition of the right at a global level would have numerous important implications on what we leave to our future generations.’
Civil society also took the floor to proclaim their support for the global recognition of the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, in a statement delivered by Romaine Izia Favre on behalf of Earthjustice, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and 20 other NGOs. This civil society statement to the Human Rights Council underlined that over 1,100 civil society organisations from all regions of the world and a broad range of constituencies have called for global recognition of the right to a healthy environment.
The pollution crisis, the biodiversity crisis and the global warming crisis, already violate and jeopardize today the human rights of billions of people. Human rights must be fully protected in the face of these increasing and intersecting environmental crises.
Support for the right to a healthy environment also came from 15 UN agencies in an rare Joint Statement which highlighted the triple environmental crisis which threatens the rights of present and future generations: climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution. The Statement, which was joined by ILO, OHCHR, UNICEF, UNDP, UN Women, UNEP, UNHCR and WHO, amongst others, declared:
‘We have come together under the UN Secretary-General’s Call to Action for Human Rights, through the inspiration provided by the Council, and in response to the urgent call for action from all corners of the world to declare that the time for global recognition, implementation, and protection of the human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment is now.’
Together with our civil society partners, GI-ESCR is urging States to co-sponsor the States’ Joint Statement (which is still open for sign on) and to engage constructively in the Human Rights Council process towards the global recognition of the right to a healthy environment.