ABSTRACT
Two charter-based institutions – the HRC and the OHCHR – have been at the forefront of articulating environmental rights, recognizing, for the first time, the right to a healthy environment as a stand-alone right. In this chapter, the authors discuss how these two institutions have addressed environmental degradation, climate change, and sustainable development including SDGs within their mandate. OHCHR believes that the human rights framework lays down the responsibilities of duty-bearers with respect to all human rights harms, including those caused by environmental degradation. In this chapter, the authors have discussed how the two leading human rights bodies – the HRC and OHCHR – have addressed environmental issues within their mandate. Likewise, very detailed comments and recommendations have been made in relation to indigenous rights including ratifying ILO Convention 169, implementing the free, prior and informed consent principle, and consulting with them, protecting their ancestral lands and culture, and incorporating provisions of UNDRIP into national law.
