Inger Andersen - Message on the right to healthy environment

To kick-start discussions at the UN about the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, the Council core group on the subject (made up of Costa Rica, Maldives, Morocco, Slovenia and Switzerland), with the support of the Universal Rights Group (URG), the Commonwealth Small States Office in Geneva, the Geneva Academy, UNICEF, UNEP, and OHCHR, convened an expert seminar on 6 February 2020 to consider the growing recognition of the ‘right to environment’ around the world, to understand the value of this right for individual rights-holders and for the environment, and to answer the question: should the right be recognised at UN-level (by the Council and then by the General Assembly)? This video message by H.E. Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UN Environment Programme (UNEP) was screened during the opening segment of the event.