A/HRC/28/61 brought together environmental defenders from Africa and Europe. The following month, he spoke at a three-day conference in Washington, D.C., which honoured the memory of the Brazilian activist Chico Mendes 25 years after his death, and which addressed current issues facing environmental defenders, particularly in Latin America. In May, he participated in a three-day meeting in Bangkok organized by the Swedish International Development Agency, which focused on issues facing defenders in South-East Asia. He then hosted a meeting in Bangkok that brought together experts from throughout Asia to identify challenges and good practices in the protection of environmental defenders.1 8. With respect to climate change, the Independent Expert co-hosted with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation an expert meeting in Chamonix on 15 and 16 July 2014, followed by a consultation with Governments and other stakeholders in Geneva on 17 July. He published a special report on climate change and human rights, which compiled all of the statements on human rights obligations relating to climate change made in the reports that are part of his mapping project.2 On 17 October 2014, he and 26 other special rapporteurs and independent experts issued a joint statement calling on the State parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to ensure full coherence between their human rights obligations and their efforts to address climate change. In December, he attended the twentieth Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention in Lima and spoke at two side events there. 9. From 20 to 24 October 2014, the Independent Expert carried out a mission to France to examine its experience with the use of human rights obligations in the context of environmental policy (A/HRC/28/61/Add.1). 10. In 2014, the Independent Expert also supported the efforts of others working to integrate human rights and environmental protection. For example, he gave long-distance presentations to a workshop on human rights, environment and climate change organized by the Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Yangon, Myanmar, from 13 to 15 September, and on 6 November to a meeting of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean negotiating a regional agreement on implementation of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. Other presentations included statements to conferences hosted by the University of the Andes in Colombia, on 17 March, and by the University of Oslo, on 9 September. II. The process of compiling good practices 11. The process of identifying, promoting and exchanging views on good practices in the use of human rights obligations in environmental policymaking began early in the mandate. The Independent Expert and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) worked closely with UNEP to develop an interagency programme to identify and disseminate information about good practices. The assistance of UNEP throughout the mandate has been crucial to its success. 12. Together, the Independent Expert and UNEP identified criteria to guide the identification of good practices. They defined the term “practice” broadly to include legislation, policies, case law, administrative practices, and projects, as well as practices that go beyond established legal obligations relating to the environment. Practices can be 1 2 4 The report of the meeting is available at http://ieenvironment.org/consultations/. The report is at http://ieenvironment.org/2014/08/08/report-on-climate-change-and-human-rights/.

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