In a resolution that provoked hostilities between supporter nations and the US, the UN Human Rights Council has urged governments to adopt laws and policies that would implement the right to a healthy environment.
The resolution adopted on Tuesday, championed by Costa Rica, the Maldives, Morocco, Slovenia, and Switzerland, stresses the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment and calls on governments to defend those working to safeguard it. Additionally, it requests support from UN treaty organizations for its implementation.
The UN’s previous special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, John Knox, who is also a professor of International Law at Wake Forest University School of Law, said it signals a shift from simply recognizing the right “to actually starting to take steps to implement it.”
Also, Sébastien Duyck, human rights and climate campaign manager at the Center for International Environmental Law said “It identifies concrete steps to make this right a reality, beginning with protecting environmental defenders and communities facing the deadly impacts of the ongoing triple planetary crisis.”
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At the last minute, it had been anticipated that the US would abandon its backing for the resolution and urge others to do the same, forcing a vote. But, after late-night deliberations, it decided to change its mind.
According to Duyck, the US presumably realized that isolating itself on “such an important resolution” would be untenable from a diplomatic and public relations standpoint.
US Ambassador Michèle Taylor said in a statement to the council on Tuesday that her country has long recognised the link between environmental protection and human rights and has continued to support the development of a legal right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment in a manner that is consistent with international law.
However, she added that because her country had serious reservations about the resolution getting in front of the correct advancement of such a right, it would disassociate from consensus on the matter.
Story was adapted from Climate Home News
