On the 9th and 10th of March, an Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment was held as part of the 52nd Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva. The Special Rapporteur presented his two latest thematic reports on “Women, girls and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment,” and “Environmental Conservation in the prevention of future pandemics.” 

QUNO Programme Assistant, Alana M Carlson, speaking under the Friends World Committee for Consultation, delivered an intervention responding to both thematic reports. She upheld findings that unsustainable and unjust economic systems drive environmental degradation and threaten the enjoyment of human rights. Recognizing that human rights are safeguarded when we as humanity care for the planet’s health, she asked: “what role can the HRC play in strengthening recognition by States of the inextricable linkage between human rights and the protection of the natural world?”

To this question, the Special Rapporteur responded that the HRC should include the right to a healthy environment in the Universal Periodic Review process as well as produce strong resolutions on the protection of environmental human rights defenders, and protection of the environment and human rights.

To read the full intervention, click here.