Environmental Law, Policy & Economics

AG/RES. 1819 (XXXI-O/01)
Human Rights and the Environment

(Resolution adopted at the third plenary session, held on June 5, 2001)

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

CONSIDERING that the international community continues to discuss the importance of the possible link between human rights and environmental protection, as expressed in the 1972 Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm Declaration), the 1989 Hague Declaration, the 1992 United Nations Declaration on Environment and Development (Rio Declaration), and other international instruments on the subject;

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT the work done in this field by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the Economic and Social Council; and

BEARING IN MIND the human rights enshrined in the American Convention on Human Rights and in other human rights instruments, in particular the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, “Protocol of San Salvador”; and

That the effective enjoyment of all human rights, including the right to education and the rights of assembly and freedom of expression, as well as full enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights, could foster better environmental protection by creating conditions conducive to modification of behavior patterns that lead to environmental degradation, reduction of the environmental impact of poverty and of patterns of unsustainable development, more effective dissemination of information on this issue, and more active participation in political processes by groups affected by the problem,

RESOLVES:

To underscore the importance of studying the link that may exist between the environment and human rights, recognizing the need to promote environmental protection and the effective enjoyment of all human rights.
To request the General Secretariat to conduct, in collaboration with other organs of the inter-American system, a study of the possible interrelationship of environmental protection and the effective enjoyment of human rights.
To instruct the Secretary General to report to the General Assembly at its thirty-second regular session on the implementation of this resolution.