14 September 2022, 19:00-20:30
Event
Melissa Bradley, Unsplash
Global challenges such as climate change, food insecurity, forced migration, and armed conflicts, as well as difficult access to water, land and other natural resources, raw materials and energy, have increased and have a major impact on stability and security in the world. Violations of human rights, especially in the context of environmental protection, are increasingly driving conflict.
At its 48th session in October 2021, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (HRC) recognized for the first time the human right of all to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, calling on states to work together, and with other partners, to implement this newly recognized right. It also invited the UN General Assembly (UNGA) to consider the matter. At its 76th session in July 2022, the UNGA responded to this call and recognized the human right of all to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
In parallel, UN treaty bodies (TBs) and regional courts are increasingly acknowledging the environmental dimensions of human rights. These TBs and courts are developing jurisprudence on environmental harm inducing human rights violations and on the negative human rights implications of climate change, as well as harmful projects aimed at mitigating and adapting to climate change.
At this side event to the HRC 51st session, the Geneva Academy, the Permanent Missions of Costa Rica, the Maldives, Morocco, Switzerland and Slovenia to the UN in Geneva, Franciscans International, CIEL and EarthJustice invite States, NGOs, international organizations and human rights experts to discuss their role in promoting and protecting the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
On this occasion, we will present our background paper Human Rights, the Environment, and the Right to a Healthy Environment, an output of our research project on the same issue and the basis of a future publication by the end of 2022.
Watch this side event to the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council which discussed the role of states, NGOs, international organizations and human rights experts in promoting and protecting the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
Ulrika
Two UN treaty bodies, three UN Special Rapporteurs and the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances issued a Joint Statement on illegal intercountry adoptions.
Geneva Academy
In 2022, the TBMP hosted nine informal meetings for UN TBs, with the participation of UN TBs secretariat staff from OHCHR, along with UN Special Procedures mandate holders and their respective secretariat staff in order to support OHCHR ‘all-mechanism’ approach.
UN Women/Ryan Brown
This Human Rights Conversation will discuss child participation in the work of UN human rights mechanisms and opportunities to move away from today’s reliance on individual organizations or UN representatives’ initiatives.
GCH
This hybrid event, co-organized by our Geneva Human Rights Platform, UPR-Info, OHCHR and UN-Habitat, and the Geneva Cities Hub will discuss human rights implementation at the local and the UPR.
Adobe
This training course will explore the major international and regional instruments for the promotion of human rights, as well as with their implementation and enforcement mechanisms; and provide practical insights into the different UN human rights mechanisms pertinent to advancing environmental issues and protecting environmental human rights defenders.
UN Photo
This online short course analyses the main international and regional norms governing the international protection of refugees. It notably examines the sources of international refugee law, including the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and their interaction with human rights law and international humanitarian law.
CCPR Centre
The Geneva Human Rights Platform collaborates with a series of actors to reflect on the implementation of international human rights norms at the local level and propose solutions to improve uptake of recommendations and decisions taken by Geneva-based human rights bodies at the local level.
Canva