“I remain deeply concerned by the targeting of environmental activists”, said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, welcoming the rapid response mechanism as “an important contribution to help advance my Call to Action for Human Rights”. As the first ever internationally-agreed tool to safeguard environmental defenders, it marks an important step in upholding the universal...
New investigation reveals for the first time how much financial institutions in UK, EU, US, and China could have made from deals with agribusiness firms linked to deforestation and associated abuses. HSBC, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, Rabobank, and Bank of China are among the worst offenders. Banks and investors headquartered in the UK, EU, US, and China made an...
By Melanie Montalban, Managing Lawyer – ACT and Claudia Hodge, EDO volunteer and Youth-Chair of the Environment and Human Rights Subcommittee, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights * In a landmark decision on 8 October 2021, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) recognised the human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment by adopting Resolution...
A group of 46 countries is set to vote in Geneva this week on a new mechanism to speed up the process of coming to the aid of environmental rights defenders amid rising cases of violence. Taking place every four years, parties will meet at the Palais des Nations under the Aarhus Convention, a key instrument adopted nearly 20 years ago that protects the public’s access to information...
Below you have the links to the final statement and the sign-on form, as well as a suggested summary text that you can use for communications. Please start circulating for signatures. The deadline for signatures is Octobre 15. The statement with all the signatures will be released and shared with you on October 18. Final statement: https://tinyurl.com/3wbjzk2h...
Switzerland successfully put forward three initiatives to the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council. Together with Costa Rica, Morocco, the Maldives and Slovenia, it presented a resolution calling on the Human Rights Council to recognise the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a separate human right. The resolution sends out an important political...
Council adopts resolutions on the situation of humans rights in the Syrian Arab Republic, and on cooperation with the United Nations The Human Rights Council this afternoon appointed a Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, and a Special Rapporteur to monitor the situation of human rights in Burundi. In a...
Opening Statement by Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 5 September 2021 It is a pleasure to be with you all today, and I want first to express my profound gratitude and respect for your work. Defending biodiversity, ecosystems and our environment as a whole is dangerous. Both in the field and at the global level, my Office has been monitoring the situation...
Are you a human rights or social justice activist who cares about wellbeing at the individual, organizational and movement levels? The Wellbeing Project, in partnership with Human Rights Resilience Project, is launching its Defenders Wellbeing Collective. Social justice and human rights advocates often face stress and trauma, but frequently lack tools to support resilience at the...
GENEVA (19 August 2021) – The UN’s draft plan to preserve and protect nature must be amended to put human rights at its centre if we are to ensure the future of life on our planet, David Boyd, UN special rapporteur on human rights and environment, said today. “Leaving human rights on the periphery is simply not an option, because rights-based conservation is the most effective,...
