UN Environment seeks to engage a broad range of stakeholders with the aim of promoting environmental human rights education and awareness to those who need it.
Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992) states that “Environmental issues are best handled with participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level. At the national level, each individual shall have appropriate access to information concerning the environment that is held by public authorities, including information on hazardous materials and activities in their communities, and the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes. States shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available. Effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings, including redress and remedy, shall be provided.”
UN Environment promotes the implementation of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration by supporting regional negotiation processes for a legally binding agreement that ensures access to information, public participation and justice in environmental matters. This support contributed to the adoption, on 4 March 2018, of an unprecedented binding regional agreement to protect access rights in San Jose, Costa Rica.
We aim to provide the public- particularly vulnerable populations, indigenous peoples and environmental defenders- with access to information through:
- Disseminating information on environmental rights through media;
- Promoting awareness to the public on their environmental rights;
- Providing information, tools and resources on environmental rights for environmental rights defenders and other stakeholders, in particular by building on the existing online resource portal led by the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment and supported by UN Environment
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