Human Rights and the Environment

About this Event

The link between human rights and the environment has been recognized ever since the 1972 Stockholm Declaration declared that “Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being…” More recently, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development recognized the link between human dignity and access to basic requirements. The 2003 session of the Commission on Human Rights adopted a resolution on “Human Rights and the Environment as part of Sustainable Development”; the Commission will consider the issue again at its forthcoming session (15 March –23 April 2004).

A political consensus that human rights and the environment are closely related clearly exists – but how have 30 years of high-level declarations been translated into reality? Today’s roundtable will examine the progress to date on human environmental rights and the legal, political and practical results of this debate.

Agenda

• Welcoming remarks by Mr. Frits Schlingemann, Director, United Nations Environment Programme, Regional Office for Europe
• Introductory remarks by the moderator, Franz Perrez, Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests and Landscape
• Presentations by the panelists:
  • The concept of environmental human rights in law and practice, by Yves Lador
  • Proceduralizing environmental rights – the example of the UNECE Aarhus Convention, by Marc Pallemaerts
  • International courts and environmental human rights, by Philippe Sands QC
  • Environmental Human Rights in South Asia, by Jona Razzaque, FIELD
  • Human rights and the environment – the perspective of the human rights bodies, by Stefano Sensi
• Discussion with panelists and participants

Documents

• Agenda
• Summary