RES/34/20 Human rights and the environment

GE.17-05595(E)

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Human Rights Council Thirty-fourth session

27 February-24 March 2017

Agenda item 3

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 24 March 2017

34/20. Human rights and the environment

The Human Rights Council,

Reaffirming all its resolutions on human rights and the environment, the most recent

of which are resolutions 28/11 of 26 March 2015 and 31/8 of 23 March 2016, and relevant

resolutions of the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights,

Recalling General Assembly resolution 70/1 of 25 September 2015, entitled

“Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, in which the

Assembly adopted a comprehensive, far-reaching and people-centred set of universal and

transformative Sustainable Development Goals and targets, expressed its commitment to

working tirelessly for the full implementation of the Agenda by 2030, its recognition that

eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the

greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, its

commitment to achieving sustainable development in its three dimensions — economic,

social and environmental — in a balanced and integrated manner, and to building upon the

achievements of the Millennium Development Goals and seeking to address their

unfinished business, and aiming to contribute to the full implementation of that Agenda by

2030, and to the high-level political forum on sustainable development as the central United

Nations platform for the follow-up and review thereof,

Recalling also the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable

Development, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 2012, and its outcome document, “The

Future We Want”, which reaffirmed the principles of the Rio Declaration on Environment

and Development, including principle 7,

Reaffirming that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and

interrelated,

Recalling the provisions of the Cancun Declaration on mainstreaming the

conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity for well-being, adopted at the high-level

segment of the thirteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on

Biological Diversity, held in Cancun, Mexico on 2 and 3 December 2016, and looking

forward to the fourteenth meeting, to be held in Egypt,

United Nations A/HRC/RES/34/20

General Assembly

Recalling also the outcomes of the second session of the United Nations

Environment Assembly, and looking forward to the third session, to be held in Nairobi

from 4 to 6 December 2017,

Recognizing that human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable

development, that the right to development must be fulfilled in order to meet the

development and environmental needs of present and future generations equitably, that

sustainable development requires healthy ecosystems, and that the human person is the

central subject of development and should be an active participant in and the beneficiary of

the right to development,

Welcoming the entry into force of the Paris Agreement, adopted under the United

Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in which the parties acknowledged in

the preamble that they should, when taking action to address climate change, respect,

promote and consider their respective obligations with regard to human rights, the right to

health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons

with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the right to development, as well as

gender equality, the empowerment of women and intergenerational equity,

Taking note of the outcomes of the twenty-second session of the Conference of the

Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the

Marrakech Action Proclamation for Our Climate and Sustainable Development,

Recognizing that sustainable development and the protection of the environment,

including ecosystems, contribute to human well-being and to the enjoyment of human

rights, including the rights to life, to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of

physical and mental health, to an adequate standard of living, to adequate food, to safe

drinking water and sanitation and to housing, and cultural rights,

Recognizing also that, conversely, the impact of climate change, the unsustainable

management and use of natural resources, the unsound management of chemicals and

waste, the resulting loss of biodiversity and the decline in services provided by ecosystems

may interfere with the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and

that environmental damage can have negative implications, both direct and indirect, for the

effective enjoyment of all human rights,

Recognizing further the importance of gender equality, the empowerment of women

and the role women play as managers of natural resources and agents of change in the

safeguarding of the environment,

Recognizing that, while the human rights implications of environmental damage are

felt by individuals and communities around the world, the consequences are felt most

acutely by those segments of the population that are already in vulnerable situations,

Recognizing also that degradation and loss of biodiversity often result from and

reinforce existing patterns of discrimination, and that environmental harm can have

disastrous, and at times geographically dispersed, consequences on the quality of life of

indigenous peoples, local communities, peasants and others who rely directly on the

products of forests, rivers, lakes, wetlands and oceans for their food, fuel and medicine,

resulting in further inequality and marginalization,

Acknowledging that wetlands are the ecosystem with the highest rate of loss and

degradation, and aware that indicators of current trends suggest that pressure on

biodiversity and wetlands will increase in the years to come,

Recognizing the key role that wetlands play in maintaining water quantity and

quality, among other things, and recalling General Assembly resolutions 68/157 of 18

December 2013 and 70/169 of 17 December 2015 on safe drinking water and sanitation,

which are essential for the full enjoyment of all human rights,

Recognizing also the need to change human development patterns, behaviour and

activities to respect nature as a fundamental condition for the well-being of all forms of life,

which depend on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and the ecosystem

services it underpins, and in this regard recalling Goal 12 of the 2030 Agenda for

Sustainable Development, on ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns,

and target 12.1, on implementing the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable

Consumption and Production Patterns,

1. Welcomes the work undertaken to date by the Special Rapporteur on the issue

of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and

sustainable environment, and takes note of his most recent report on the human rights

obligations relating to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity;1

2. Also welcomes the work of the Office of the United Nations High

Commissioner for Human Rights on the issue of human rights and the environment;

3. Further welcomes the work undertaken by the United Nations Environment

Programme in support of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur, and in helping to clarify

the relationship between human rights and the environment;

4. Notes with appreciation the work undertaken by the Geneva Pledge for

Human Rights in Climate Action and other countries and relevant actors in helping to

mainstream the human rights perspective into the climate change and environment agenda;

5. Calls upon States:

(a) To respect, protect and fulfil human rights, including in all actions

undertaken to address environmental challenges, including the rights to life and to the

enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, to an adequate

standard of living, to adequate food, to safe drinking water and sanitation, and to housing

and cultural rights;

(b) To adopt and implement strong laws ensuring, among other things, the rights

to participation, to access to information and to justice, including to an effective remedy, in

the field of the environment;

(c) To facilitate public awareness and participation in environmental decision-

making, including of civil society, women, children, youth, indigenous peoples, local

communities, peasants and others who depend directly on biodiversity and the services

provided by ecosystems, by protecting all human rights, including the rights to freedom of

expression and to freedom of peaceful assembly and association;

(d) To implement fully their obligations to respect and ensure human rights

without distinction of any kind, including in the application of environmental laws and

policies;

(e) To promote a safe and enabling environment in which individuals, groups

and organs of society, including those working on human rights and environmental issues,

including biodiversity, can operate free from threats, hindrance and insecurity;

(f) To provide for effective remedies for human rights violations and abuses,

including those relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable

environment, in accordance with their international obligations and commitments;

1 A/HRC/34/49.

(g) To establish or maintain effective legal and institutional frameworks to

regulate the activities of public and private actors in order to prevent, reduce and remedy

harm to biodiversity, taking into account human rights obligations and commitments

relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean and healthy environment;

(h) To take into account human rights obligations and commitments relating to

the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment in the implementation

of and follow-up to the Sustainable Development Goals, bearing in mind the integrated and

multisectoral nature of the latter;

6. Encourages States:

(a) To adopt an effective normative framework for the enjoyment of a safe,

clean, healthy and sustainable environment, including biodiversity and ecosystems;

(b) To address compliance with human rights obligations and commitments

relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment in the

framework of human rights mechanisms, including the universal periodic review, and the

submission of State party reports to relevant United Nations human rights treaty bodies;

(c) To facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experiences between experts in

the environmental and human rights fields, and to promote coherence among different

policy areas;

(d) To build capacities for taking human rights obligations and commitments into

account in their efforts to protect the environment;

(e) To explore ways to incorporate information on human rights and the

environment, including climate change, biodiversity and ecosystem services, in school

curricula, in order to teach the next generations to act as agents of change, including by

taking into account indigenous knowledge;

(f) To seek to ensure that projects supported by environmental finance

mechanisms respect all human rights;

(g) To collect disaggregated data on the effects of environmental harm, including

the loss of biodiversity and the decline of ecosystem services, on persons in vulnerable

situations;

(h) To promote environmental action, including climate action that is gender-

responsive and includes gender equality and the empowerment of women, and takes into

consideration the vulnerability of ecosystems and the needs of persons and communities in

vulnerable situations;

(i) To continue to share good practices in fulfilling human rights obligations

relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, including

biodiversity and healthy ecosystems, through the good practices database maintained by the

Special Rapporteur;

(j) To strengthen their efforts to protect biodiversity, including by meeting their

national targets, thereby contributing to the achievement of the Strategic Plan for

Biodiversity 2011-2020 and its associated Aichi Biodiversity Targets under the Convention

on Biological Diversity;

(k) To build capacity for the judicial sector to understand the relationship

between human rights and the environment;

(l) To foster a responsible private business sector and to encourage corporate

sustainability reporting while protecting environmental standards in accordance with

relevant international standards and agreements;

(m) To consider further, among other aspects, respect for and the promotion of

human rights within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on

Climate Change, including at the twenty-third session of the Conference of the Parties, to

be organized by Fiji and held in Bonn, Germany from 6 to 17 November 2017;

7. Recognizes the important role played by individuals, groups and organs of

society, including human rights defenders, in the promotion and protection of human rights

as they relate to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment,

including biodiversity and ecosystems;

8. Also recognizes the important role of national human rights institutions in

support of human rights relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable

environment, including biodiversity and ecosystems;

9. Requests the Special Rapporteur, in collaboration with the Office of the High

Commissioner:

(a) To convene, prior to the thirty-seventh session of the Human Rights Council,

a one-day expert seminar on best practices, lessons learned and the way forward with

regard to human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and

sustainable environment, informed by the findings of the mandate holder;

(b) To invite States and other relevant stakeholders, including academic experts

and civil society organizations, to participate actively in the seminar;

(c) To invite relevant experts of United Nations agencies, funds and

programmes, other international organizations and conventions to participate in the

seminar;

(d) To submit to the Human Rights Council, at its thirty-seventh session, a report

on the above-mentioned seminar, including any recommendations stemming therefrom, for

consideration of further follow-up action;

10. Stresses the need for enhanced cooperation among States, the United Nations

Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, the Food and

Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Office of the High Commissioner and

other relevant international and regional organizations, agencies, conventions and

programmes, in accordance with their respective mandates, including by regularly

exchanging knowledge and ideas and building synergies in the protection of human rights

and the protection of the environment, bearing in mind an integrated and multisectoral

approach;

11. Decides to remain seized of the matter, in accordance with its annual

programme of work.

57th meeting

24 March 2017

[Adopted without a vote.]