“Pollution is a growing public health crisis that directly interferes with human rights,” - Honourable Minister Edgar Gutierrez (Minister of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica) and President of the UN Environment 2017 Assembly.
Background
An event on human rights and pollution was held at the Third Environment Assembly to promote effective action to prevent and remedy pollution-related human rights violations.
The event was opened by outgoing President of the UN Environment Assembly, the Honourable Minister Edgar Gutierrez (Minister of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica). Minister Gutierrez said that effective actions to address pollution should have positive economic, environmental and human rights outcomes, but that their ultimate objective must always be to improve human wellbeing. The only way to arrive at this outcome is through a transparent process that ensures meaningful, informed and effective participation of affected persons and the accountability of polluters.
The expert panel was comprised of Prof. John H. Knox, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment; Ms. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Director of the Law Division, UN Environment; Ms. Annette Abelsen, Deputy Director General, Norway’s Ministry of Climate and Environment, Ms. Sarojeni Rengam, Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific, and Ms. Yuyun Ismawati, International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN).
Professor Knox emphasized the relationship between the exercise of human rights and environmental protection. He described the environmental crisis as, in part, a human rights crisis and said that by protecting environmental human rights defenders we can also protect the environment.
Sarojeni Rengam discussed the burden of disability and disease on children caused by pollution, laying particular emphasis on the improper and excessive use of pesticides and chemicals. Ms. Rengam stressed that the focus should increasingly be on the producers who are responsible for dumping these pollutants. Her call was for all relevant players to ensure that governments participate in the sessions of the Human Rights Council, and at the intergovernmental level, to support the process for a binding treaty on human rights and business.
Yuyun Ismawati talked about the role of business in our daily lives and the need to engage more with the private sector to influence good practices. Businesses should push themselves to invent and use friendlier materials – especially in relation to chemicals, and polluting products. Ms. Ismawati explained that children are being “pre-polluted” and that we need to apply the precautionary principle and encourage more innovation and tighter standards. If big manufacturers of electronic equipment do not have a mechanism to manage their e-waste for example, they should not be permitted to manufacture the electronics. What cannot be recycled should, ideally, not be made. IPEN has released a report on Samsung operations, women and workers. This report is available on the IPEN website.
There is an urgent need to improve the way we engage businesses to understand the impacts of their operations on people and on the environment. These include broader multi-stakeholder engagement – with universities and research institutions, and enforcement officers - communities and civil society organizations on the ground and decision-makers. The UN Environment Assembly provides an opportunity to build an agenda to move the needle. And science is needed to help reduce uncertainty, and laws, policies, and regulations are needed to address and mitigate those uncertainties.
Participants called on the UN system to contribute to laws that should be observed by Member States – particularly those countries from which large multinationals originate. Education is key as is a multi-pronged strategy to promoting greater protection for environmental human rights defenders.
Professor Knox said that part of the problem is a lack of information about people’s rights. When people are unable to find out what the laws are, or what the quality of their environment is, then it becomes very difficult for them to affect outcomes. The laws are there and if they are implemented effectively, they would protect rights!
The discussion:
In addition to the side event, UN Environment convened a number of interventions related to environmental rights during the UN Environment Assembly. These included:
- A media talk on environmental human rights defenders; and
- Consultation with Major Groups and Stakeholders on UN Environment’s Environmental Defenders policy
For more information, please contact Angela.Kariuki@un.org
