A/HRC/25/53 poses “dangers and risks” to nutritious foods and clean drinking water (art. 24, para. 2(c)). In its concluding observations on country reports, the Committee on the Rights of the Child regularly addresses environmental hazards as barriers to the realization of the right to health and other rights.20 The Special Rapporteur on hazardous substances and wastes has emphasized the harm to children’s rights to health caused by exposure to mercury and other hazardous substances in extractive industries (A/HRC/21/48, paras. 28–30). 25. Because of the close relationship that indigenous peoples have with nature, they can be uniquely vulnerable to environmental degradation. The Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples has emphasized that “extractive industry activities generate effects that often infringe upon indigenous peoples’ rights” (A/HRC/18/35, para. 26), and has detailed many examples of such infringement, including on their rights to life, health and property.21 IV. Human rights obligations relating to the environment 26. This section sets out human rights obligations relating to the environment as they have been described by international agreements and the bodies charged with interpreting them. Although only some of these agreements explicitly refer to the environment, human rights bodies have increasingly applied them to environmental issues in recent years as our knowledge of the dangers of environmental degradation has increased. The result is a large and growing number of legal statements that together create a body of human rights norms relating to the environment. 27. The Independent Expert understands that not all States have formally accepted all of these norms. While some of the statements cited are from treaties, or from tribunals that have the authority to issue decisions that bind the States subject to their jurisdiction, other statements are interpretations by experts that do not in themselves have binding effect. Despite the diversity of the sources from which they arise, however, the statements are remarkably coherent. Taken together, they provide strong evidence of converging trends towards greater uniformity and certainty in the human rights obligations relating to the environment. These trends are further supported by State practice reflected in the universal periodic review process and international environmental instruments. 28. In this light, the Independent Expert encourages States to accept these statements as evidence of actual or emerging international law. At a minimum, they should be seen as best practices that States should move to adopt as expeditiously as possible. A. Procedural obligations 29. One of the most striking results of the mapping exercise is the agreement among the sources reviewed that human rights law imposes certain procedural obligations on States in relation to environmental protection. They include duties (a) to assess environmental impacts and make environmental information public; (b) to facilitate public participation in environmental decision-making, including by protecting the rights of expression and association; and (c) to provide access to remedies for harm. These obligations have bases in civil and political rights, but they have been clarified and extended in the environmental context on the basis of the entire range of human rights at risk from environmental harm. 20 21 8 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) report, sect. II. Report on indigenous peoples, sect. II. See also the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) report, sect. II; and Inter-American report, sect. III.C.