FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 22, 2018
Geneva — Today, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution renewing the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment for another three years. The resolution recognizes that “more than 100 States have recognized some form of a right to a healthy environment” and addresses the need to integrate human rights in climate action.
“Environmental degradation and the exhaustion of natural resources constitute some of the biggest threats to the realization of human rights in the 21st century. The work of the next UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment will be particularly critical to ensure that international human rights norms finally address this blind spot,” says Sébastien Duyck, Senior Attorney at CIEL.
The resolution, sponsored by 81 UN Member States, was adopted in response to the final two reports prepared by John Knox at the end of his mandate as UN Special Rapporteur. In one of the reports, John Knox stressed the added value that the international recognition of the right to a healthy and sustainable environment would have for people exposed to environmental degradation worldwide.
“The majority of the States already recognize the right to a healthy environment in their domestic legal system, and we are encouraged that the Human Rights Council has called attention to it,” says Duyck. “Combined with the reports prepared by John Knox for the Human Rights Council during the past 6 years, this recognition should serve as a basis for the United Nations to recognize rapidly and unequivocally the right of all individuals and peoples to a healthy environment.”
The process for the selection of the new Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment has now begun with a call for application by 4 May 2018.
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