There is no longer doubt about the intersection of the environment and human rights. As illustrated throughout the pandemic, all environmental threats, from climate change to toxic exposure, are impacting individuals’ daily lives and human rights, especially in vulnerable communities. Therefore, governments and other stakeholders can’t afford to deal with the environment and human rights as separate issues any longer. The Human Rights Council (HRC) represents a promising yet challenging space to connect these two areas of work on an international scale.
Overview of the Role of the HRC
While a majority of countries have already addressed the connection between the environment and human rights by recognizing the right to a healthy environment through national constitutions or legislation, there is still a need to act on the international level. The HRC is the premier forum where States, civil society, and Indigenous Peoples can advocate for international recognition of the human right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, given its mandate to ensure the effective implementation of human rights as guaranteed by international law. Among other functions, the HRC can pass resolutions, which are not legally binding, though they contain strong political commitments, and thus can help steer States to greater protection of the environment through the UN General Assembly.
Special procedures, such as those undertaken by the Rapporteur on human rights and the environment and the Rapporteur on toxics, represent another way to push for changes, since they are devoted to further addressing environmental challenges that impact human rights. These procedures indeed examine, advise, and publicly report on human rights issues and situations. Special procedures assess a specific human rights situation, and the Rapporteurs may report their findings or thematic studies to the HRC and the UN General Assembly and release public statements to the media.
Even though they produce documents that are not legally binding, these institutions remain important catalysts for changing international and national laws.
Civil Society’s Role in Highlighting Links Between Environment and Human Rights at the HRC
Ecological crises have gained prominence at the HRC in recent sessions, but the environment and the links between human and environmental health must still gain more attention. Thankfully, this institution isn’t a giant with feet of clay. Indeed, the Council is a living place of political dialogue. In 2020, despite the coronavirus outbreak and strict conditions for in-person meetings, the HRC has held three sessions. The 44th and 45th HRC sessions perfectly embodied the opportunities and challenges faced by civil society organizations (CSOs) in attempting to orient the focus of the delegations to an integrated approach to the environment and human rights.
The 44th HRC in July 2020 was a chance for the States, guided by NGOs’ claims, to underscore interlinkages between climate change and human rights. CIEL successfully supported a partner organization working on relevant issues so it could engage in the HRC’s annual full-day meeting in the panel discussion on the rights of persons with disabilities in the context of climate change. What’s more, during the session dedicated to the resolution on realizing the rights of the child through a healthy environment as a child rights concern, CIEL called attention on the rights of the child to the health risks posed by plastic toys to children’s health. However, the pandemic brings a new set of challenges for CSO participation, leading to some frustration. Namely, procedural obstacles associated with virtual participation ultimately reduced the voice of CSOs in that session.
The 45th HRC Session: Advocacy Space for Environmental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The 45th HRC session in September 2020 provided an in-depth perspective of what can be achieved regarding plastic and toxics during the pandemic. A presentation of the report on the duty to prevent exposure to COVID-19 by the Special Rapporteur on toxics was an opportunity for CIEL to participate in a dialogue session at the Council.
The COVID-19 crisis has generated an exponential amount of waste, and specifically, plastic waste. This recent influx, caused by concerns of viral contamination, is compounding with existing waste challenges. Handling the COVID-19 crisis and efficiently protecting human health requires governments to tackle the plastic crisis at its source because the integrity of the environment is also a public health concern.
The most vulnerable communities have been pushing back against exposure to health hazards since long before the global health crisis began. Living in an unhealthy environment inevitably increases the risks of diseases, while workers suffer from daily exposure to toxic substances. One worker dies at least every 30 seconds from exposure to toxic industrial chemicals, pesticides, dust, radiation, and other hazardous substances. Unfortunately, this number is expected to grow due to the pandemic. Among other risks, frontline workers are particularly affected by toxic exposure coming from additives found in protective equipment. A recent study revealed that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are likely found in medical textiles, such as masks and gowns. Waste pickers collecting contaminated garbage in developing countries and vulnerable communities located close to landfill sites are particularly susceptible to health risks. The COVID-19 crisis brings new challenges and reveals a preexisting crisis: a “silent pandemic” caused by daily exposure to hazardous substances. Therefore, no state can meet its human rights obligations without preventing human exposure to pollution, plastic, toxics, and waste.
From the UN Fantasy to the Political Reality: Outcomes of the HRC
Given the UN’s procedural obstacles and complexity, it’s fair to wonder about the efficiency and effectiveness of the HRC’s advocacy process. It is undeniably a long-term process and it is hard to see the immediate results, particularly when it comes to the plastic crisis.
However, HRC sessions are chances for NGOs to highlight for delegations the obvious links between the environment, health, and human rights. Such dialogues open advocacy doors and enable civil society to bring major topics to the UN. The HRC is an opportunity to make the invisible visible and to open the eyes of the States to matters of the utmost concern. It’s also a space to invite Special Rapporteurs to deepen their work on certain environmental emergencies, such as plastic and access to information, as endorsed by the new Special Rapporteur on toxics, Mr. Orellana. The 45th session was a precious opportunity to collaborate with other NGOs to push for the global recognition of the right to a healthy environment and to safeguard ambitious wording for the Resolution on the Rights of the Child.
On the other hand, it’s easy to feel disappointed when some delegations attempt to undermine or even gut the ambitious content in the Council’s resolutions. Diplomacy and politics often prevail over the substantial debates on environmental issues. And when mixing the environmental and human rights agendas, the issues become more politicized than ever. Outcomes of the HRC are highly dependent upon the political ad hoc context, and are too contingent to be predicted. It indeed relies on the political priorities at stake in the mind of the delegations. As a result, the environment often takes a backseat at the Council when political conflicts arise. The dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on toxics, for example, was postponed for a few days to enable the Council to hold an emergency session on the Belarus situation, holding an unexpected urgent debate on the situation of human rights in the country.
Furthermore, there are procedural barriers, even for those based in Geneva. Getting a good time slot to intervene at the Council can be as hard as getting a ticket to a Rolling Stones concert. And it’s even more difficult to engage from abroad.
What’s Next?
Protecting the environment will be a key component to prevent future pandemics and safeguard human rights. Therefore, supporting a healthy and sustainable environment must lead the way in discussions at the UN. Despite obvious flaws, the HRC will certainly offer, in the near future, opportunities to work with Special Rapporteurs as well as new opportunities to influence the wording of UN resolutions. This forum must continue to improve at giving a voice to those communities most exposed to environmental and human rights threats, who lack access to the levers of power and public influence.
Finally, what can we do as individuals? We can spread information, raise awareness, and call on our governments to soundly manage the tsunami of plastic threatening our environment and human rights. We must all, collectively and individually, continue spreading the call to defend environmental human rights at the local, national, and international levels.
By Suzanne Astic, Legal Intern, Geneva
Originally posted on November 11, 2020