7 September 2014: Over 150 scholars and policy experts discussed the role of human rights and the environment in the post-2015 development agenda and future climate change regime at the third UNITAR/Yale Conference on Environmental Governance and Democracy.
The event, titled ‘Human Rights, Environmental Sustainability, Post-2015 Development, and the Future Climate Regime’ was hosted at the Yale Law School and Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in New Haven, Connecticut, US, from 5-7 September 2014 and organized in collaboration with UNEP, UNDP, and WRI. Speaking on behalf of partners, Achim Halpaap, UNITAR, described the three goals for conference outcomes: identifying policy relevant insights from research; developing recommendations for action, including appropriate venues and arenas; and identifying knowledge gaps and research opportunities.
Throughout the weekend, participants considered, inter alia, constitutional environmental rights; country case studies of human rights and environmental justice; why and how procedural environmental rights matter; corporate social responsibility in the context of human rights and the environment; the participation of civil society and vulnerable groups; and international aspects of the human rights and environmental regime.
In his opening remarks, Ben Cashore, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, encouraged participants to identify effective interventions and policy pathways in order to contribute to broader policy learning. Sally Fegan-Wyles, UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Executive Director, underscored the interface of rights, governance, and sustainable development in the post-2015 development agenda and the new climate change regime. Achim Steiner, UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director, described how UNEP is part of an overall UN effort to pursue and support countries in taking a rights-based approach.
John Knox, UN Independent Expert on Human Rights and the Environment, in his key note presentation identified the following four benefits of a human rights perspective on environmental protection. First, it focuses attention on the ways that environmental harm prevents individuals and communities from living lives of dignity, equality, and freedom. Second, human rights norms establish clear procedural requirements for environmental policy-making. Third, human rights law includes minimum substantive standards that environmental policies must meet. Finally, human rights institutions may provide remedies for environmental harm. In addition to the strengths of a human rights-based perspectives, he also mentioned three cited weaknesses: human rights may not be universally accepted; human rights mechanisms are at times not effective; and human rights are limited in scope.
On strengthening international regimes on human rights and the environment, Elliott Harris, UNEP, described how closely linked processes are: the need for a climate change agreement with a clear roadmap for establishing goals and targets, and also for the SDGs to agree on the way to achieve transformational change to sustain life on the planet. Although these processes are independent, Harris underscored that they are also closely intertwined. Dan Bondi Ogolla, UNFCCC, identified relevant dimensions of human rights as it relates to the UNFCCC process, including language on procedural rights and participation and socio-economic dimensions of climate change.
Participants concluded the conference with a discussion on recommendations raised at the conference, and action taken by participants for the way forward. [IISD RS Sources] [Conference Webpage]