A/HRC/43/53/Add.2 environmental harms and climate change, including women, children, indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and people living in poverty, as well as persons for whom some of these factors intersect. 7. Since 2014, Norway has supported resolutions on human rights and the environment of the Human Rights Council. 1 In 2019, Norway led the process of adopting a strong Council resolution on environmental human rights defenders. 2 Norway also supported a resolution on promoting gender equality and the human rights and empowerment of women and girls in environmental governance adopted by the United Nations Environment Assembly in March 2019. In a recent white paper, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs observed that human rights are “a central element in climate and environmental policy”.3 8. However, Norway has not ratified several optional protocols establishing mechanisms through which citizens can bring complaints about their rights, including the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure and the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.4 The Special Rapporteur encourages Norway to ratify these important instruments. 9. Norway has also ratified all of the major international environmental treaties, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol thereto, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (Basel Convention) and the Ban Amendment to the Basel Convention (which recently entered into force), the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Convention on Longrange Transboundary Air Pollution, the Minimata Convention on Mercury, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and many more. Norway ratified the Paris Agreement and was among the States that led the successful effort to strengthen the Basel Convention to address exports of mixed plastic waste. 10. Finally, it is important to note that since 1994 Norway has been part of the internal market of the European Union through the Agreement on the European Economic Area. As a consequence of that Agreement, roughly 80 per cent of Norwegian legislation in the field of climate and environment is based on European Union legislation. B. National laws, policies and institutions 11. At the national level, the Constitution has recognized the right to a healthy environment since 1992 (art. 110b). The wording of the article dedicated to this right, included in the chapter of the constitution on human rights, was strengthened in 2014. Article 112 states: Every person has the right to an environment that is conducive to health and to a natural environment whose productivity and diversity are maintained. Natural resources shall be managed on the basis of comprehensive long-term considerations which will safeguard this right for future generations as well. In order to safeguard their right in accordance with the foregoing paragraph, citizens are entitled to information on the state of the natural environment and on the effects of any encroachment on nature that is planned or carried out. 1 2 3 4 4 Resolutions 25/21, 28/11, 31/8, 34/20 and 37/8. Resolution 40/11. Opportunities for All: Human Rights in Norway’s Foreign Policy and Development Cooperation, Report to the Storting (2015), p. 51. Other States known for their leadership in the field of international human rights, including other Scandinavian States such as Finland, have ratified these instruments. Information on the ratification status of these optional protocols is available from https://treaties.un.org/Pages/Treaties.aspx? id=4&subid=A&clang=_en.