UN Recognition of the Right to a Healthy Environment: Past and Future

* From 7 April, registration for online participation is possible only.

The UN Environment Programme, the Universal Rights Group, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, and New York University are inviting states, UN entities, civil society, academics and environmental defenders to participate in an important expert seminar on ‘UN recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment: past developments and future prospects.’ This will take place on 12 April (from 08:30 to 12:00) at New York University, and feature interactive roundtable discussions with interventions by UN senior officials, UN Special Rapporteurs, UN entities, academic experts, civil society leaders, business representatives, and environmental human rights defenders.

Expert seminar

To encourage further discussions at UN headquarters about the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, including its merits for people and planet, and to take forward the Council’s invitation that ‘the General Assembly [...] consider the matter’, on 12 April UNEP, the Universal Rights Group, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and environment, New York University, and others, will convene an expert seminar to consider developments to-date, discuss key issues and questions (including legal questions) related to the right to a healthy environment (including those posed during negotiations over resolution 48/13), look ahead to possible GA recognition and what it would mean, and reflect on the benefits of recognition for individual rights-holders around the world, including EHRDs, as well as for the natural environment (including addressing the three interwoven planetary crises of biodiversity loss, pollution, and climate change).

Agenda

08:00 – 08:30 Coffee

08:30 – 9:00 Welcome and keynote speeches

Welcome by moderators: Marc Limon, URG Executive Director, and Daniel Magraw, President Emeritus CIEL (5 mins)

Keynote speeches

• H.E. Ligia Noronha, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Head of New York Office, UNEP
• H.E. Ilze Brands Kehris, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, OHCHR
• Senior official from the Executive Office of the Secretary-General (TBC)
• Kelly Ann Naylor, Associate Director for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene, UNICEF
• Youth activist (UNICEF video)

09:00 – 10:15 Roundtable discussion 1: UN recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment: what has happened so-far and where are we now?

Moderator: Marc Limon, URG

Discussants:

• The right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment around the world – where are we today, what does it mean, and what is the value-added for people and communities? - Dr David Boyd, Special Rapporteur on human rights and environment
• The story so-far, and key legal questions from Human Rights Council negotiations – Prof. John Knox, Wake Forest University
• The benefits of a right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment at regional and national levels: a case study – Dr Maria Antonia Tigre, Global Climate Litigation fellow, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School and Deputy Director, Global Network for Human Rights, and the Environment

10:15 – 10:30 Coffee break

10:30-11:45 Roundtable discussion 2: UN recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, future prospects – what would/could it mean for people and planet?

Moderator: Daniel Magraw, CIEL

Discussants

• Generating a ‘normative cascade’ – Prof. Cesar Rodriguez-Garavito, New York University
• #TheTimeIsNow - what would full UN recognition mean for people and planet? –Marya Farah, Franciscan International
• #TheTimeIsNow - what would full UN recognition mean for people and planet? –Samia Shell, Youth climate activist

11:45-12:00 Closing remarks

• Joint statement by Costa Rica, Maldives, Morocco, Slovenia and Switzerland
• Dr David Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment

See the detailed concept note and agenda of the seminar.

Participants not able to attend in person will be able to follow the live stream of the event. The relevant link to connect to the Zoom meeting will be sent to registered participants the day before the start of the event.

The expert seminar is co-sponsored by: UNICEF; OHCHR; UNDP; Foreign Policy Institute (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University; Center for Urban Environmental Reform, CUNY School of Law; Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, WWF International; Global Pact Coalition; Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice; The Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment; Quaker United Nations Office; Franciscans International; International Service for Human Rights; BirdLife International; Center for International Environmental Law; The B Team; Terre des Hommes; Children’s Environmental Rights Initiative (CERI).