{"id":7578,"date":"2021-10-08T15:53:13","date_gmt":"2021-10-08T13:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/the-un-human-rights-council-recognises-the-right-to-a-healthy-environment-2\/"},"modified":"2022-06-24T12:03:10","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T10:03:10","slug":"the-un-human-rights-council-recognises-the-right-to-a-healthy-environment-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/the-un-human-rights-council-recognises-the-right-to-a-healthy-environment-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The UN Human Rights Council recognizes the right to a healthy environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

At 3 PM on October 8, 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Council<\/strong> adopted a resolution recognizing the right to a healthy environment as an essential human right.<\/p>\n

This resolution is a historic victory for the protection of the environment.<\/strong> Although more than 150 States already recognize this right in their domestic legislation, this is the first time that an international text explicitly recognizes the right to a healthy environment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although this resolution is not legally binding, the near-unanimous adoption shows consensus on the importance of this right.<\/p>\n

Leading up to the Resolution<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The works on this recognition started in September 2020, when a Core Group of States on Human Rights and the Environment (Costa Rica, Morocco, Slovenia, Switzerland and the Maldives) started informal discussions on the possible recognition by the international community of a right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. In March 2021, 69 States issued a statement calling for a recognition of this right.<\/p>\n

The Core Group\u2019s initiative gathered much support: NGOs, UN Agencies, and the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Environment David R. Boyd and his predecessors all supported the call for a resolution.<\/p>\n

The Resolution<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On October 8, 2021, the Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 48\/13<\/a> by a vote of 43 in favor, none against and 4 abstentions (China, India, Japan, Russia). Despite the abstentions and the United States\u2019 absence from the Council, the adoption of this resolution reveals nearly unanimous support for the right to a healthy environment.<\/p>\n

The Resolution\u2019s first article recognizes \u201cthe right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right that is important for the enjoyment of human rights\u201d. The adoption of Human Rights Council resolution is an important first step that could have far-reaching implications for human rights and the environment. If carried before the General Assembly, this resolution could well be the catalyst for more global international recognition of the right to a healthy environment, and lead to possibly the adoption of an international covenant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At 3 PM on October 8, 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution recognizing the right to a healthy environment as an essential human right. This resolution is a historic victory for the protection of the environment. Although more than 150 States already recognize this right in their domestic legislation, this is … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":7562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[194],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-un"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7578"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8081,"href":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7578\/revisions\/8081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}