In March, QUNO organized a side event at the Human Rights Council on “Procedural Rights and the Environment: Preventing conflict around water, land and food". Procedural rights include the right to information, public participation in decision-making and right to remedy and complement substantive rights such as the right to life or the right to food. Jonathan Woolley of QUNO chaired the event and the Permanent Representatives of Ethiopia and Chile to the UN in Geneva spoke on existing and planned legal frameworks relating to the environment in Africa and Latin America, respectively. Diane Hendrick for QUNO spoke on the role of peacebuilding approaches in preparing for the effective exercise of procedural rights and the importance of the latter in preventing destructive conflict. Andrea Iff of swisspeace discussed the relevance of these rights for conflict sensitive engagement by businesses.  

Further background on the side event is available in the "Concept note" PDF available below.