A/HRC/22/43 6. In his future reports, the Independent Expert will respond to each of the elements of the mandate in greater detail. This first report is intended only to place the mandate in a historical context, present some of the outstanding issues and describe the current and planned programme of activities. II. The evolution of environmental rights 7. Environmental rights – that is, rights understood to be related to environmental protection – are late arrivals to the body of human rights law. The drafters of the seminal human rights instrument, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, did not include environmental rights. Nor, at the time, did the national constitutions to which the drafters looked for inspiration. The silence was understandable. Although humans have always known of our dependence on the environment, we were only beginning to realize how much damage our activities could cause to the environment and, as a result, to ourselves. Efforts to mitigate environmental degradation were then still in their infancy. 8. As scientific knowledge of the environment has grown over the succeeding decades, so has our awareness of the importance of safeguarding it. From the 1960s to the present, the modern environmental movement has transformed our relationship with the environment. Virtually every State in the world has enacted domestic laws aimed at reducing air and water pollution, regulating toxic substances and conserving natural resources, among other goals. At the international level, States have negotiated a vast number of agreements to address environmental challenges, including trade in endangered species, conservation of biological diversity, transportation and disposal of hazardous substances, marine pollution, depletion of the ozone layer and climate change. 9. In short, environmental concerns have moved from the periphery to the centre of human efforts to pursue economic and social development. Since the early 1990s, the international community has repeatedly emphasized that development must be sustainable and, in particular, must protect the environment on which present and future generations depend. In the words of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, adopted at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, “in order to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection shall constitute an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it” (principle 4). Goal 7 of the Millennium Development Goals is to ensure environmental sustainability, including by integrating principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes, and reversing the loss of environmental resources.2 In June 2012, at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, States again renewed their commitment “to ensuring the promotion of an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future for our planet and for present and future generations”.3 10. With the rise of a stronger environmental consciousness came calls for formal recognition of the importance of environmental protection to human well-being. These calls often sought expression in the language of human rights. This is unsurprising, even inevitable. Human rights are grounded in respect for fundamental human attributes such as dignity, equality and liberty. The realization of these attributes depends on an environment that allows them to flourish. At the same time, effective environmental protection often depends on the exercise of human rights that are vital to informed, transparent and 2 3 4 Other targets include reducing biodiversity loss, halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, and improving the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers. United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development resolution I “The future we want”, contained in its report, A/CONF.216/16, para. 1, endorsed by the General Assembly in its resolution 66/288.