A/HRC/37/59 accountability mechanisms for human rights violations in connection with conservation activities; and mainstreaming human rights into the work of international institutions working on development and environmental issues. In this last respect, the Special Rapporteur applauds the recent announcement by the United Nations Environment Programme of a new “environmental rights initiative”, designed in part to support environmental human rights defenders. He encourages OHCHR and the United Nations Environment Programme to continue to build on their partnership. 20. As Victor Hugo famously said, it is impossible to resist an idea whose time has come. The interdependence of human rights and the environment is an idea whose time is here. Over the past five years, the Special Rapporteur has made over 50 trips, to approximately 25 countries. Everywhere he has gone, he has met people who are bringing human rights to bear on environmental threats, often at great personal risk. From attorneys in Mexico to park rangers in Mongolia, from professors in China to community activists in Madagascar, from a mother who founded an environmental organization in Kenya to conservationists in Sweden to judges in Costa Rica, from indigenous leaders in Brazil to climate negotiators in Paris to international civil servants in Geneva and Nairobi, people in every country are striving for a world in which everyone can enjoy the human rights that depend upon a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. It has been a great honour to support them in their efforts. 6