RES/31/8 Human rights and the environment



Human Rights Council Thirty-first session

Agenda item 3

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 23 March 2016

31/8. Human rights and the environment

The Human Rights Council,

Reaffirming all its resolutions on human rights and the environment, the latest of

which is resolution 28/11 of 26 March 2015, 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-centered set of universal and

transformative Sustainable Development Goals and targets, 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 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,

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, 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,

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

interrelated,

United Nations A/HRC/RES/31/8

Welcoming the adoption of the Paris Agreement under the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change, in which parties acknowledge in the preamble

that parties should, when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and

consider their respective obligations on 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,

empowerment of women and intergenerational equity,,

Recognizing that sustainable development and the protection of the environment

contribute to human well-being and to the enjoyment of human rights,

Recognizing also, conversely, that climate change, the unsustainable management

and use of natural resources and the unsound management of chemicals and waste 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 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 which are already in vulnerable

situations,

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 reports on possible methods of

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

and sustainable environment1 and on human rights obligations relating to climate change;2

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. Calls upon States:

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

environmental challenges;

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

information, participation and access to justice in the field of the environment;

(c) To facilitate public awareness and participation in environmental

decision-making, including of civil society, women, youth and indigenous peoples, 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,

can operate free from threats, hindrance and insecurity;

1 A/HRC/31/53.

2 A/HRC/31/52.

(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;

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

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

and monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals, bearing in mind the integrated and

multisectoral nature of the latter;

5. Encourages States:

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

clean, healthy and sustainable environment;

(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;

(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, 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 on

vulnerable groups, as appropriate;

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

responsive 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 through the

good practices database maintained by the Special Rapporteur;

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

between human rights and the environment;

(k) 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 and other ongoing initiatives in this regard;

(l) To consider further, among other aspects, respect for human rights within the

framework of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change;

6. Looks forward to the twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties

to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be organized by

Morocco, in Marrakesh, from 7 to 18 November 2016;

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;

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;

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

Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, the Office of the

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and other relevant international and

regional organizations, agencies 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;

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

programme of work.

62nd meeting

23 March 2016

[Adopted without a vote.]