A/HRC/37/59 6. In resolution 28/11, the Council also encouraged the Special Rapporteur to promote and report on the realization of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, to disseminate his findings by continuing to give particular emphasis to practical solutions with regard to their implementation and to work on identifying challenges and obstacles to the full realization of such obligations. The Special Rapporteur presented a report in March 2016 with specific recommendations on implementation of the human rights obligations relating to the environment (A/HRC/31/53). In his second term, he has promoted implementation of the obligations in many ways, including by partnering with the United Nations Environment Programme on a series of judicial workshops on constitutional rights to a healthy environment, supporting the United Nations Institute for Training and Research in the development of an online course on human rights and the environment and working with the Universal Rights Group to develop a website for environmental human rights defenders, https://www.environmentrights.org/, as well as by undertaking country visits and receiving communications on violations. II. Framework principles on human rights and the environment 7. To facilitate implementation of the human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, the Special Rapporteur was urged to develop and disseminate guidance that clearly describes the relevant norms and is easy to understand and apply (see A/HRC/31/53, para. 69). In October 2017, the Special Rapporteur published draft guidelines on human rights and the environment and invited written comments. He also held a public consultation and an expert seminar, which included representatives of Governments, international organizations, civil society organizations and academics. He took into account the input received at the consultation and the seminar, as well as more than 50 written comments, in preparing the framework principles on human rights and the environment that are annexed to the present report. 8. The 16 framework principles set out basic obligations of States under human rights law as they relate to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Each framework principle has a commentary that elaborates on it and further clarifies its meaning. The framework principles and commentary do not create new obligations. Rather, they reflect the application of existing human rights obligations in the environmental context. As the Special Rapporteur stated in the mapping report (A/HRC/25/53), he understands that not all States have formally accepted all of these norms. While many of the obligations described in the framework principles and commentary are based directly on treaties or binding decisions from human rights tribunals, others draw on statements of human rights bodies that have the authority to interpret human rights law but not necessarily to issue binding decisions.1 9. The coherence of these interpretations, however, is strong evidence of the converging trends towards greater uniformity and certainty in the understanding of human rights obligations relating to the environment. These trends are further supported by State practice, including in international environmental instruments and before human rights bodies. As a result, the Special Rapporteur believes that States should accept the framework principles as a reflection of actual or emerging international human rights law. He is confident that, at a bare minimum, States will see them as best practices that they should move to adopt as expeditiously as possible. 1 To avoid making the document too long and unwieldy, the framework principles and commentary do not cite all of the human rights sources on which they rely. A more complete list of sources is available on the OHCHR website. Although the framework principles and commentary do not attempt to restate obligations in areas other than human rights law, they do take into account relevant international environmental sources, such as the Guidelines for the Development of National Legislation on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the Bali Guidelines), adopted by the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme in 2010. 3

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents