The UN Human Rights Council recognized the right to a #HealthyEnvironmentForAll!

HEJSupport is among signatories of the Call for the Global Recognition of the Right to a Healthy Environment.

After 30 years of demands from civil society organisations and Indigenous Peoples associations, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) approved the resolution to recognize the right to a healthy and sustainable environment for all! Resolution No. 48/13 was adopted by HRC on the 8th of October 2021.

“This resolution is especially important for all of the environmental human rights defenders working, often at great personal risk, to safeguard the land, air, water and ecosystems that we all depend on,” says David Boyd, UN special rapporteur on human rights and environment.

“Human rights to a healthy environment should be part of national legislation, including legislation on chemicals and waste, says Olga Speranskaya, co-director of HEJSupport. Enforcing such norms with a focus on human rights will strengthen countries’ ability to achieve sound chemicals and waste management and make a meaningful contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals.”

“The approved resolution recognizes the importance of taking urgent actions to protect the most vulnerable from exposure to environmental pollutants, including women, indigenous peoples, workers, children, and poor”, says Alexandra Caterbow, HEJSupport Codirector.

This recognition means increasing the responsibility of governments to ensure that we live in a world free of toxic chemicals and waste, where clean air and safe water is not a privilege but a reality for everyone; where food is produced healthy and sustainably, and where biodiversity and ecosystems are thriving and protected as never before.

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