Source: UNGA adopts a historic resolution recognising the right to a healthy environment | ISHR
On 28 July 2022, for the first time the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a landmark resolution recognising the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. The text, proposed by Costa Rica, the Maldives, Morocco, Slovenia and Switzerland was adopted with a vote of 161 Member States in favour, zero against and eight abstentions (Belarus, Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, and Syria). The resolution, based on a similar text adopted last year by the Human Rights Council, calls upon States, international organisations, and business enterprises to scale up efforts to ensure a healthy environment for all.
The resolution will also assist States to accelerate the implementation of their environmental and human rights obligations and commitments by strengthening national laws and policies. Just as the UNGA resolution recognising the right to water and sanitation in 2010 resulted in ‘a cascade of positive changes that have improved the lives of millions of people’, this resolution can be ‘a catalyst for action, and empower ordinary people to hold their governments accountable in a way that is very powerful,’ noted the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, Professor David Boyd.
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