FINAL
TEXT (16 January 2002)
MEETING OF EXPERTS ON
HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT
14-15 JANUARY 2002
1. In accordance
with Decision 2001/111 of the UN Commission on Human Rights, the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Executive Director of the United
Nations Environment Programme jointly organized a one-day Expert Seminar on
Human Rights and the Environment (16 January 2002). This Seminar was preceded
by a two-day Preparatory Meeting of experts (14-15 January 2002). The object of
the meeting and seminar was to review and assess progress achieved since the
1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in
promoting and protecting human rights in relation to environmental questions and
in the framework of Agenda 21.
2. During the
two-day Meeting participants reviewed progress made since UNCED at the
international level. In particular, they examined multilateral environmental
agreements developed since 1992; considered the activities of global and
regional human rights bodies and the jurisprudence that some of them have
developed; and assessed the activities of international organizations and
agencies. Experts at the meeting also examined the developments that have
occurred at the national level, in particular through constitutional law,
legislation, administrative practices and decisions, and the case law of
municipal courts.
3. These sets of
national and international developments indicate the close connection between
the protection of human rights and environmental protection, in the context of
sustainable development. They reflect the growing interrelationship between
approaches to ensuring human rights and environment protection, as well as the
synergies that have developed between these previously distinct fields.
4. The meeting of
experts recognized that since 1992 important developments have occurred at the
national and international levels. These indicate a growing inter-connectedness
between the fields of human rights and environmental protection. The overall
context for these developments is the concept of sustainable development, which
requires that different societal objectives be treated in an integrated manner.
5. The experts noted
in particular that the linkage of human rights and environmental concerns,
approaches and techniques is reflected in developments relating to procedural
and substantive rights, the activities of international organisations, and in
the drafting and application of national constitutions.
6. The experts found
that at the national and international levels Principle 10 of the Rio
Declaration (on access to information, participation and effective remedies)
has played an important role in fostering connections between human rights and
environmental approaches. The experts observed that multilateral agreements at
the global and regional level have developed Principle 10 of the Rio
Declaration by establishing mechanisms for the exercise of procedural rights,
in particular the right to environmental information and to public
participation in decision-making. This was reflected, for example, in the 1998
Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to
Justice in Environmental Matters, which aims to provide effective means for the
exercise of procedural rights in the field of the environment. Other
international developments, for example treaties dealing with civil liability
regimes, have developed mechanisms of redress for individuals in relation to
environmental and related harms.
7. At the global
level, some human rights treaties included the value of the environment to
their systems of protection, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child
and ILO Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent
Countries. The experts noted that at the regional level, the African Charter on
Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Protocol of San Salvador to the American
Convention on Human Rights expressly recognize the right to live in a healthy
or satisfactory environment. Similarly, a number of environmental treaties
embody human rights approaches.
8. From a review of
the decisions of international treaty bodies (including courts and
commissions), the experts noted that in the last decade there has been a
substantial body of case-law and decisions that recognise the violation of a
fundamental human right as the cause, or result, of environmental degradation.
A significant number of decisions at the national and international levels have
identified environmental harm to individuals or communities, especially
indigenous peoples, arising as a result of violations of the rights to health,
to life, to self determination, to food and water, and to housing. Particularly
in the European system, a clear connection had been made between a violation of
the right to privacy and home life and the right not to be subject to
pollution, including the right to know whether pollution is likely to affect a
particular individual or community.
9. Many
international organizations and UN agencies have also addressed the connection
between human rights and the environment in their organizational structures and
activities, particularly through the adoption of policies that favor access to
environmental information and public participation in their procedures, but
also through their policies aimed at sustainable development and poverty
alleviation.
10. At the national
level, the right to a healthy environment (or a related formulation) has been formally recognized in most
national constitutions enacted since 1992. In many constitutions this right
permits individuals or groups to file legal actions to protect the environment
or fight against pollution. Over the past ten years there has been a growing
domestic case-law indicating the potential role that environmental rights may
have for achieving practical protections. That case-law may also be relevant
for international jurisprudence.
11.
The
experts also noted the progress which has made in the context of the UN
Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of
Minorities, the UN Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human
Rights, and the Commission on Human Rights, towards understanding the
interconnections between human rights and environmental protection,
particularly through the work of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the
Environment, and currently the work of Special Rapporteur on Adverse Effects of
the Illicit Movement and Dumping of Toxic and Dangerous Products and Wastes on
the Enjoyment of Human Rights.
12. The experts
recognised that respect for human rights is broadly accepted as a pre-condition
for sustainable development, that environmental protection constitutes a
pre-condition for the effective enjoyment of human rights protection, and that
human rights and the environment are interdependent and inter-related. These
features are now broadly reflected in national and international practices and
developments.
13. The experts noted
the broad recognition that poverty is at the center of a number of human rights
violations and is at the same time a major obstacle to achieving sustainable
development and environmental protection. A rights-based approach can enhance
the impact of policies and programmes at the national and international levels
on this matter. In this regard, the Experts noted with concern that in certain
jurisdictions individuals and groups associated with the protection and
promotion of human rights and the environment were being prevented from
carrying out their legitimate activities.
14. In relation to
procedural matters, the experts noted that broad recognition of the linkage
between human rights and the environment since UNCED has come through the
development of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and
Development. States and international organizations are increasingly
recognizing the rights of access to information, public participation, and
access to justice. A notable example of such progress was the entry into force
of the 1998 Aarhus Convention. The experts recognised the need for further
developments in this respect, including through the adoption of new
international legal instruments (at regional levels or, some suggest, the
global level) to provide effectively for rights of access to information,
public participation in decision-making, and access to justice.
15. In relation to
substantive matters, a growing body of case law from many national
jurisdictions is clarifying the linkages between human rights and the
environment, in particular by: 1) recognizing the right to a healthy
environment as a fundamental human right; 2) allowing litigation based on this
right, and facilitating its enforceability in domestic law by liberalizing
provisions on standing; 3) acknowledging that other human rights recognized in
domestic legal systems can be violated as a result of environmental
degradation. The experts recognised the important role that the judiciary
(national and international) can play in this regard, and emphasized the need
to sensitize and provide further training to judges, lawyers and public
officials.
16. The experts noted
the particular lessons which may be gained from the experiences of indigenous
peoples, which appear particularly relevant to a broader understanding of the
relationship between human rights and the environment. In this regard the
experts noted the particular importance of the principle of self-determination
and the rights associated with the ownership, possession and use of traditional
lands, territories and resources.
17. During the course
of the two-day meeting, the experts put forward suggestions for future
developments.
18. The Experts
recognised that normative links between the human rights and environmental
fields need to be reinforced, beyond existing guarantees provided in national
and international instruments and practices. Specifically, and in the context
of the forthcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development:
·
With regard to procedural and substantive rights there is a need:
o
to enhance public awareness,
especially in the corporate sector, of the connections between human rights
protection and environmental protection, and
o
to ensure that persons promoting the protection of human rights and the
environment are not penalized, persecuted or harassed for their activities.
·
There is a need for more certainty and consistency at the national and
international levels respecting procedural (participatory) rights, inter alia by:
o
the adoption of new instruments, mechanisms and procedures to implement
Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration, and
o
facilitating and improving rights of access to information, effective
participation in decision-making and access to justice and other remedies in
national and international fora and instruments, and
o
creating greater awareness of the need to avoid merely pro-forma
provisions on participation (especially in national systems).
·
With regard to substantive rights, further steps need to be taken to:
o
affirm the link between human rights and environmental protection as an
essential tool in the eradication of poverty and achievement of sustainable
development;
o
treat economic, environmental and human rights norms in an integrated
manner, and develop legal and other concepts and techniques for achieving such
integration;
o
recognize the environmental dimension in the effective enjoyment of
human rights protection and promotion and the human rights dimension in
environmental protection and promotion, in part by developing rights-based
approaches to environmental protection and promotion of sustainable development;
o
support the growing recognition of a right to a secure, healthy and
ecologically sound environment, either as a constitutionally guaranteed
entitlement/right or as a guiding principle of national and international law;
o
emphasize the responsibility of private actors and develop effective
mechanisms to prevent and redress environmental degradation, including remedies
for victims, in national and international instruments in the field of
environment and human rights;
o
consider more broadly the catalogue of substantive human rights which
can be marshaled to assist in achieving environmental protection, with
particular reference inter alia to
the rights of indigenous peoples’ and other vulnerable groups; and
o
identify and move to correct gaps and limitations in substantive
protections, with a view to strengthening international instruments and further
normative developments aiming at consistency and equality in the application of
minimum standards of environmental protection within the framework of human rights
protection.
·
With regard to institutional arrangements, the linkage between human
rights and the environment is in need of reinforcement. This could be achieved
by:
o
Ensuring that environmental bodies and procedures are fully aware of
the increasing environmental role played by human rights bodies and procedures,
and that human rights bodies are fully aware of the increasing human rights
role played by environmental institutions and procedures;
o
Ensuring greater emphasis on environmental protection in the work of
human rights bodies and procedures, particularly by encouraging closer
engagement of UNEP in the work of the human rights treaty bodies, and the
closer engagement of OHCHR in the work of the secretariats to multilateral
environmental agreements;
o
Establishing a formal institutional relationship between OHCHR and UNEP
with a view to strengthening the links and connections between human rights and
environmental issues;
o
Co-ordinating efforts between OHCHR and UNEP and operational and
financial institutions in appropriate aspects of their respective activities,
including by
§ exchanging information, sharing expertise, and enhancing arrangements for monitoring and reporting systems;
§ developing arrangements for assisting capacity-building (including technical cooperation) to promote an integrated approach to human rights and environmental protection, especially in the developing countries;
§ promoting programmes to sensitize decision makers, including public officials, legislators and members of the judiciary, as to the need to develop a sense of commitment to the protection of human and environmental rights and to adopt more holistic approaches for integrating the requirements of sustainable development in the interpretation and application of national and international norms for the protection of those rights and sustainable development concepts;
§ enhancing mechanisms for receiving and addressing citizens’ complaints in the field of human rights and the environment;
o Impressing on governments and civil society the need to include in the information they provide to the human rights mechanisms specific references to environmental factors;
o Publishing the results of the Seminar, including on the OHCHR and UNEP web-sites.
·
The OHCHR and UNEP should seek to ensure that the subject of human
rights and the environment be fully addressed at the upcoming World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, and that appropriate steps are taken
at the Summit to promote and protect human rights and environment following the
Summit.