CIEL: UN Human Rights Body recognizes the human rights and environment linkage

 

April 15, 2011

On March 18, 2011, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on human rights and the environment (A/HRC/16/L.7 available via the 16th session of the Council’s website), by consensus, highlighting the human rights impacts of environmental degradation, and calling on States to adopt a human rights-based approach to sustainable development.  CIEL works with the UN Human Rights Council and Member States to strengthen the linkage between human rights and environment.  CIEL worked with the Maldives Government on the Council’s human rights and environment resolution, and also collaborates with the Maldives in regard to climate change and human rights.

The Council’s resolution, sponsored by 75 countries and tabled by the Maldives, Costa Rica and Switzerland, stresses that environmental damage undermines human rights, especially amongst vulnerable population groups such as women, children, the poor, the elderly, and disabled persons.  It further notes that good governance (i.e., access to information and public participation in decision-making) is essential for sustainable development; and that international cooperation is required to effectively address environmental damage, while promoting and protecting human rights.
The resolution requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct a detailed analytical study on the relationship between human rights and the environment, to be submitted to the Human Rights Council prior to its nineteenth session in March 2012, and discussed in the Council’s 19th session.

For more information, please contact Marcos Orellana.