Issue Management Group on Human Rights and the Environment
The EMG’s support for a more coherent, consistent and rights-based approach by the UN system to human rights and the environment responds to the UN Secretary-General’s Call to Action on Human Rights. The importance of this issue was further highlighted in October 2021 when the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution recognizing, for the first time, that a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a human right. This was followed by the General Assembly in July 2022 with the adoption of resolution 76/300 on “The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment”.
Established in 2020 and led by OHCHR, UNDP and UNEP, the Issue Management Group (IMG) on Human Rights and the Environment aims to integrate the human right to a healthy environment into the work of the UN to ensure a coherent and rights-based approach to environmental action throughout the UN system.
Resources produced by the IMG
Right to a Healthy Environment
- Upholding the Human Right to a Healthy Environment to Address the Triple Planetary Crisis: Common Narrative (November 2022)
Climate Change
- Advancing a Human Rights-based Approach to the Climate Negotiations (November 2022)
- IMG Strategy for Engagement with the 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (November 2021)
Biodiversity
- Advancing a Human Rights-based Approach to the Global Biodiversity Framework (December 2022)
- Guidance on Integrating Human Rights in National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (March 2024)
- IMG Strategy for Engagement with the Convention on Biological Diversity (March 2022)
Desertification
- Advancing a Human Rights-based Approach to Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought (May 2022)
- IMG Strategy for Engagement with the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (April 2022)
Webinars
- The Right to a Healthy Environment in the context of Pollution (28 September 2022)
- The Right to a Healthy Environment in the context of Biodiversity (21 September 2022)
- The Right to a Healthy Environment in the context of Climate Change (14 July 2022)