On June 21st, 2022, the core group of countries composed of Costa Rica, Maldives, Morocco, Slovenia, and Switzerland introduced a draft resolution for UN General Assembly recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. Two rounds of Member States negotiations will happen in July and a vote is likely to happen by the end of July.
The short zero draft resolution contains three operative paragraphs:
The first operative paragraph states that the UN General Assembly “recognizes the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of all human rights.”
The second operative paragraph highlights that the right “is inextricably related to the right to life and the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, as well as other rights.”
The third operative paragraph calls upon States and international organizations “to adopt policies, to enhance cooperation and continue to share good practices in order to scale up efforts to ensure a clean, healthy and sustainable environment for all.”
We are excited to invite GNHRE members to contribute to our blog series on the expected recognition of the right to a healthy environment at the United Nations General Assembly, the core of the draft resolution, and what this would mean for international environmental law.
Contributions should take the form of short blog posts (around 1,500 words) and should be submitted prior to July 30, 2022. Posts will be published throughout August/September 2022. Please send contributions to gnhrewebsite@gmail.com
