The Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment: Consensus Building on its Scope and Links with Other Human Rights

Event

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On 18 October 2021, at its 48th session, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council took the landmark step of recognizing the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment (HR2HE). Less than a year later, on 28 July 2022, the UN General Assembly adopted its resolution 76/300, confirming by consensus a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right. The text of the resolution calls on countries to work together, and with other partners, to implement the breakthrough.

While it is clear that the General Assembly’s recognition of the HR2HE is a win in and of itself, emphasis should now be put on building consensus on its content and scope.

This side event to the HRC 55th session – co-organized with the Permanent Missions of Costa Rica, Morocco, Slovenia and Switzerland – will discuss the scope of the HR2HE and its links with other human rights.

Panelists will highlight differences and similarities in the approaches to the HR2HE at national, regional and international levels, and they will discuss how these approaches influence the content and scope of the HR2HE and correlated states obligations, in the spirit of seeking a common understanding. They will also discuss how the main elements of the HR2HE and correlative states obligations are based on the key components of other human rights.

Welcoming Remarks

• Jürg Lauber, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the UN in Geneva

Moderation

• Christophe Golay, Senior Research Fellow, Geneva Academy

Panelists

• David R. Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment
• Natalia Kobylarz, Senior Lawyer, Registrar, European Court on Human Rights
• Sébastien Duyck, Senior Attorney, Human Rights and Climate Campaign Manager, CIEL
• Baïna Ubushieva, Associate Research Fellow, Geneva Academy

CLOSING REMARKS

• Smiljana Knez, Ambassador for Climate Diplomacy, Republic of Slovenia