{"id":7678,"date":"2022-02-27T21:23:43","date_gmt":"2022-02-27T20:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/?p=7678"},"modified":"2022-03-15T14:46:25","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T13:46:25","slug":"third-consultation-debrief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/third-consultation-debrief\/","title":{"rendered":"Third consultation on UN General Assembly resolution 73\/333"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
 <\/p>\n

On February 27, the latest draft of the 2022 Declaration<\/a><\/strong> was released by the United Nations Environment Programme.<\/p>\n

A week earlier, from February 16 to 18<\/strong>, UN Member States had held a third and final session of negotiations on the declaration mandated by UN General Assembly resolution 73\/333<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These negotiations were extended until Sunday night<\/strong>, 27 February, following the inability of the States to find common ground within the allotted time. This declaration is intended to be adopted at the “UNEP@50<\/a>” summit<\/strong>, which aims to commemorate the 50th anniversary of UNEP, on 3 and 4 March 2022.<\/p>\n

Despite more than two years of negotiations, this text is ultimately devoid of truly ambitious proposals<\/strong>, despite some interesting provisions.<\/p>\n

Indeed, opposition to environmental rights has not waned despite significant advances (1)<\/strong>. Nevertheless, this last draft has ultimately dispelled the risk of regression (2)<\/strong>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
 <\/p>\n

1\/ Despite their recognition, environmental rights still face opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following the recognition<\/a> by the Human Rights Council of the right to a healthy environment,<\/strong> more and more States have supported this recognition<\/strong> in the draft declaration.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the opposition of some Member States has not waned. The United States <\/strong>and Russia <\/strong>were particularly vocal in their opposition to a right to a healthy environment. In the face of this opposition,\u00a0consensus was reached by lowering the ambition of the declaration.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In particular, the article recognizing the right to a healthy environment was downgraded<\/strong>. The final text no longer refers to a right to a healthy environment. It only recognizes that “a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is important for the enjoyment of human rights”.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n

2\/ The risk of regression was averted<\/strong><\/p>\n

The general level of ambition falters<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some Member States such as Brazil<\/strong> and China<\/strong> made the negotiations difficult by presenting proposals that divided the assembly. Conversely, a small group of delegations, including the European Union, Colombia, Costa Rica and Switzerland<\/strong>, tried to raise the level of ambition of the declaration.<\/p>\n

Adopted language causing a stir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fears that the text might be regressive were ultimately dismissed. <\/strong>The proposal of some\u00a0States, such as Algeria<\/strong>, Russia <\/strong>and China<\/strong>, to delete the reference to the notion of “environmental rule of law” was ultimately\u00a0rejected. This notion was already included in several UN resolutions.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
 <\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

The latest draft declaration is singularly lacking in ambitious proposals.<\/strong>After long negotiations, the result falls short of expectations.<\/p>\n

Commentators agree that this failure could well sound the death knell for Nairobi<\/a> <\/strong>as the driving force behind international environmental law.<\/p>\n

In the face of these institutional blockages, hope could come from the United Nations General Assembly<\/strong>, which will have the opportunity to adopt a resolution recognizing the right to a healthy environment in 2022.<\/p>\n

This is in line with the Human Rights Council resolution<\/a>\u00a0recognizing the right to a healthy environment as a human right. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Global Pact Coalition is waging this battle<\/strong>\u00a0with a coalition of NGOs.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  On February 27, the latest draft of the 2022 Declaration was released by the United Nations Environment Programme. A week earlier, from February 16 to 18, UN Member States had held a third and final session of negotiations on the declaration mandated by UN General Assembly resolution 73\/333. These negotiations were extended until Sunday … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":3381,"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-7678","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\/7678","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=7678"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7726,"href":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7678\/revisions\/7726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpactenvironment.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}