Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Issue of Human Rights Obligations Relating to the Enjoyment of a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment: Framework Principles

Abstract

The final report of the Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment calls on the United Nations to recognize the human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

The report also presents sixteen Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment, which summarize the human rights obligations of States in relation to the environment. The Principles describe: procedural obligations, including to provide environmental information, facilitate public participation in environmental decision-making, and to provide for access to remedies for environmental harm; substantive obligations to adopt and implement standards that protect the enjoyment of human rights from environmental harm; obligations of international cooperation to address transboundary and global environmental harm; and obligations not to discriminate against, and to take additional measures to protect, those who are particularly at risk.

Keywords: human rights, environment, sustainable development

JEL Classification: K32, K33