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Inter-American Convention against All Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance 2013, para. xiv
- Paragraph text
- The states undertake to prevent, eliminate, prohibit, and punish, in accordance with their constitutional norms and the provisions of this Convention, all acts and manifestations of discrimination and intolerance, including: xiv. The restriction or limitation, based on any of the criteria set forth in Article 1.1 of this Convention, of the right of every person to access and sustainably use water, natural resources, ecosystems, biodiversity, and ecological services that are part of each state’s natural heritage, protected by the relevant international instruments and their own national laws;
- Body
- Organization of American States
- Document type
- Regional treaty
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The contribution of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development to the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals 2009, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- Also calls upon Governments, in cooperation with the international community, to reaffirm their commitment to promote an enabling environment to achieve sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable development and to eradicate poverty, with a special emphasis on gender, reducing the debt burden and ensuring that structural adjustment programmes are responsive to social, economic and environmental concerns in order to achieve the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Development Goals;
- Body
- Commission on Population and Development
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2009
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The contribution of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development to the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals 2009, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- Calls upon Governments to take into account the linkages of population dynamics, including population growth, changing age structures and spatial distribution, with economic growth and sustainable development in formulating and implementing national development policies and strategies, including those addressing climate change and the current food and financial crises;
- Body
- Commission on Population and Development
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2009
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Women and the environment 1997, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Such assistance should also be rendered to the countries with economies in transition at the bilateral and multilateral levels.
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Women
- Year
- 1997
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Women and the environment 1997, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- Political parties should be encouraged to incorporate environmental goals with a gender dimension into their party platforms.
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Women
- Year
- 1997
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Assessment of the status of implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development 2014, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Notes with concern that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time, and that the population of all countries, particularly those in developing countries, are vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, which threatens their food security and efforts to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development, and urges Governments to strengthen efforts to address climate change, including mitigation and adaptation;
- Body
- Commission on Population and Development
- Document type
- Declaration / Confererence outcome document
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Temporary Refuge 1980, para. (f)
- Paragraph text
- Recognized the need to define the nature, function and implications of the grant of temporary refuge;
- Body
- Executive Committee of the Programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
- Document type
- ExCom Conclusion
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 1980
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to water (Art. 11 and 12) 2002, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- Environmental hygiene, as an aspect of the right to health under article 12, paragraph 2 (b), of the Covenant, encompasses taking steps on a non-discriminatory basis to prevent threats to health from unsafe and toxic water conditions. For example, States parties should ensure that natural water resources are protected from contamination by harmful substances and pathogenic microbes. Likewise, States parties should monitor and combat situations where aquatic eco-systems serve as a habitat for vectors of diseases wherever they pose a risk to human living environments.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to water (Art. 11 and 12) 2002, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- While the Covenant provides for progressive realization and acknowledges the constraints due to the limits of available resources, it also imposes on States parties various obligations which are of immediate effect. States parties have immediate obligations in relation to the right to water, such as the guarantee that the right will be exercised without discrimination of any kind (art. 2, para. 2) and the obligation to take steps (art. 2, para.1) towards the full realization of articles 11, paragraph 1, and 12. Such steps must be deliberate, concrete and targeted towards the full realization of the right to water.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to water (Art. 11 and 12) 2002, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Where water services (such as piped water networks, water tankers, access to rivers and wells) are operated or controlled by third parties, States parties must prevent them from compromising equal, affordable, and physical access to sufficient, safe and acceptable water. To prevent such abuses an effective regulatory system must be established, in conformity with the Covenant and this General Comment, which includes independent monitoring, genuine public participation and imposition of penalties for non-compliance.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to water (Art. 11 and 12) 2002, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- States parties should adopt comprehensive and integrated strategies and programmes to ensure that there is sufficient and safe water for present and future generations. Such strategies and programmes may include: (a) reducing depletion of water resources through unsustainable extraction, diversion and damming; (b) reducing and eliminating contamination of watersheds and water-related eco-systems by substances such as radiation, harmful chemicals and human excreta; (c) monitoring water reserves; (d) ensuring that proposed developments do not interfere with access to adequate water; (e) assessing the impacts of actions that may impinge upon water availability and natural-ecosystems watersheds, such as climate changes, desertification and increased soil salinity, deforestation and loss of biodiversity; (f) increasing the efficient use of water by end-users; (g) reducing water wastage in its distribution; (h) response mechanisms for emergency situations; (i) and establishing competent institutions and appropriate institutional arrangements to carry out the strategies and programmes.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to water (Art. 11 and 12) 2002, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- States parties should ensure that the right to water is given due attention in international agreements and, to that end, should consider the development of further legal instruments. With regard to the conclusion and implementation of other international and regional agreements, States parties should take steps to ensure that these instruments do not adversely impact upon the right to water. Agreements concerning trade liberalization should not curtail or inhibit a country's capacity to ensure the full realization of the right to water.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to water (Art. 11 and 12) 2002, para. 37f
- Paragraph text
- [In General Comment No. 3 (1990), the Committee confirms that States parties have a core obligation to ensure the satisfaction of, at the very least, minimum essential levels of each of the rights enunciated in the Covenant. In the Committee's view, at least a number of core obligations in relation to the right to water can be identified, which are of immediate effect:] To adopt and implement a national water strategy and plan of action addressing the whole population; the strategy and plan of action should be devised, and periodically reviewed, on the basis of a participatory and transparent process; it should include methods, such as right to water indicators and benchmarks, by which progress can be closely monitored; the process by which the strategy and plan of action are devised, as well as their content, shall give particular attention to all disadvantaged or marginalized groups;
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to water (Art. 11 and 12) 2002, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- In determining which actions or omissions amount to a violation of the right to water, it is important to distinguish the inability from the unwillingness of a State party to comply with its obligations in relation to the right to water. This follows from articles 11, paragraph 1, and 12, which speak of the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to health, as well as from article 2, paragraph 1, of the Covenant, which obliges each State party to take the necessary steps to the maximum of its available resources. A State which is unwilling to use the maximum of its available resources for the realization of the right to water is in violation of its obligations under the Covenant. If resource constraints render it impossible for a State party to comply fully with its Covenant obligations, it has the burden of justifying that every effort has nevertheless been made to use all available resources at its disposal in order to satisfy, as a matter of priority, the obligations outlined above.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to water (Art. 11 and 12) 2002, para. 44a
- Paragraph text
- [While it is not possible to specify a complete list of violations in advance, a number of typical examples relating to the levels of obligations, emanating from the Committee's work, may be identified:] Violations of the obligation to respect follow from the State party's interference with the right to water. This includes, inter alia: (i) arbitrary or unjustified disconnection or exclusion from water services or facilities; (ii) discriminatory or unaffordable increases in the price of water; and (iii) pollution and diminution of water resources affecting human health;
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to water (Art. 11 and 12) 2002, para. 44b
- Paragraph text
- [While it is not possible to specify a complete list of violations in advance, a number of typical examples relating to the levels of obligations, emanating from the Committee's work, may be identified:] Violations of the obligation to protect follow from the failure of a State to take all necessary measures to safeguard persons within their jurisdiction from infringements of the right to water by third parties. This includes, inter alia: (i) failure to enact or enforce laws to prevent the contamination and inequitable extraction of water; (ii) failure to effectively regulate and control water services providers; (iv) failure to protect water distribution systems (e.g., piped networks and wells) from interference, damage and destruction; and
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to water (Art. 11 and 12) 2002, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- The duty to take steps clearly imposes on States parties an obligation to adopt a national strategy or plan of action to realize the right to water. The strategy must: (a) be based upon human rights law and principles; (b) cover all aspects of the right to water and the corresponding obligations of States parties; (c) define clear objectives; (d) set targets or goals to be achieved and the time frame for their achievement; (e) formulate adequate policies and corresponding benchmarks and indicators. The strategy should also establish institutional responsibility for the process; identify resources available to attain the objectives, targets and goals; allocate resources appropriately according to institutional responsibility; and establish accountability mechanisms to ensure the implementation of the strategy. When formulating and implementing their right to water national strategies, States parties should avail themselves of technical assistance and cooperation of the United Nations specialized agencies (see Part VI below).
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to water (Art. 11 and 12) 2002, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- The formulation and implementation of national water strategies and plans of action should respect, inter alia, the principles of non-discrimination and people's participation. The right of individuals and groups to participate in decision-making processes that may affect their exercise of the right to water must be an integral part of any policy, programme or strategy concerning water. Individuals and groups should be given full and equal access to information concerning water, water services and the environment, held by public authorities or third parties.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to water (Art. 11 and 12) 2002, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- The national water strategy and plan of action should also be based on the principles of accountability, transparency and independence of the judiciary, since good governance is essential to the effective implementation of all human rights, including the realization of the right to water. In order to create a favourable climate for the realization of the right, States parties should take appropriate steps to ensure that the private business sector and civil society are aware of, and consider the importance of, the right to water in pursuing their activities.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to water (Art. 11 and 12) 2002, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- States parties may find it advantageous to adopt framework legislation to operationalize their right to water strategy. Such legislation should include: (a) targets or goals to be attained and the time frame for their achievement; (b) the means by which the purpose could be achieved; (c) the intended collaboration with civil society, private sector and international organizations; (d) institutional responsibility for the process; (e) national mechanisms for its monitoring; and (f) remedies and recourse procedures.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to water (Art. 11 and 12) 2002, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- Having identified appropriate right to water indicators, States parties are invited to set appropriate national benchmarks in relation to each indicator. During the periodic reporting procedure, the Committee will engage in a process of "scoping" with the State party. Scoping involves the joint consideration by the State party and the Committee of the indicators and national benchmarks which will then provide the targets to be achieved during the next reporting period. In the following five years, the State party will use these national benchmarks to help monitor its implementation of the right to water. Thereafter, in the subsequent reporting process, the State party and the Committee will consider whether or not the benchmarks have been achieved, and the reasons for any difficulties that may have been encountered (see General Comment No.14 (2000), para. 58). Further, when setting benchmarks and preparing their reports, States parties should utilize the extensive information and advisory services of specialized agencies with regard to data collection and disaggregation.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to water (Art. 11 and 12) 2002, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Existing legislation, strategies and policies should be reviewed to ensure that they are compatible with obligations arising from the right to water, and should be repealed, amended or changed if inconsistent with Covenant requirements.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to water (Art. 11 and 12) 2002, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- The right to water, like any human right, imposes three types of obligations on States parties: obligations to respect, obligations to protect and obligations to fulfil.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 107i
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Create buffer zones around plantations and farms until pesticides are phased out, to reduce pesticide exposure risk;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 107l
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Regulate corporations to respect human rights and avoid environmental damage during the entire life cycle of pesticides;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Financing education and update on education in emergencies 2011, para. 77
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur underlines that investing in preventive efforts through education is crucial to protect schools and the communities they serve from the impact of natural disasters. Therefore, education systems must be actively engaged in the development and implementation of risk management strategies. Through their regular activities, schools must also contribute to establishing a culture of prevention and preparedness among students, staff and the communities to which they belong. Considering that the risks and needs of communities vary greatly, even within the same region, it is important to ensure that risk management strategies are prepared through meaningful participatory processes involving the communities where schools are located.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to education
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Environment
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- The pressures on land are increasing dramatically. As rural populations grow, plots cultivated are becoming smaller per capita and per household. In India, the average landholding size fell from 2.6 hectares in 1960 to 1.4 hectares in 2000 and continues to decline; similar evolutions have been documented in Bangladesh, the Philippines and Thailand, where the decline in the average farm size is combined with an increase in landlessness. The trend is not limited to the Asian region. In Eastern and Southern Africa, the amount of cultivated land per capita declined by half over the past generation, and in a number of countries the average cultivated area now amounts to less than 0.3 hectares per capita. This phenomenon is compounded by erosion and soil depletion: worldwide, 5 million to 10 million hectares of agricultural land are being lost annually to severe degradation. And it would be difficult to expand the areas under cultivation to the degree required to accommodate the growth of rural populations, since forests have a major role in storing carbon and deforestation is already a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- These long-term trends have been exacerbated in recent years by policies that have further increased the pressures on farmland. In many regions, under export-driven agricultural policies, large-scale plantations have developed for the production of food, energy or cash crops. While the tendency towards land concentration has resulted primarily from a dominant model of agricultural development that rewards the most mechanized and capital-intensive farms, it has also been encouraged by the expansion of long supply chains. This has generally favoured large agricultural producers, which are better connected to markets and can more easily produce the volumes and meet the standards required for export. The competition among various uses of farmland has recently been increased by policies favouring the switch to biofuels in transport, which leads to competing resource claims on the part of local resource users, Governments and incoming agrofuel producers, creating the risk that poorer groups will lose access to the land on which they depend. A recent inventory by the World Bank listing 389 large-scale acquisitions or long-term leases of land in 80 countries shows that, while 37 per cent of the so-called investment projects are intended to produce food (crops and livestock), agrofuels represent 35 per cent of such projects. For all these reasons, the Special Rapporteur has insisted that investments implying a shift in land rights should be treated with great caution. At the thirty-sixth session of the Committee on World Food Security, he will detail both the risks of large-scale land investments and possible alternative business models.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- Measures adopted with a view to climate change mitigation or environmental conservation, which have placed priority on technological and market-based solutions over the deconcentration of land in order to encourage more sustainable land uses, have created further conflicts with the rights of land users. Under the clean development mechanism provided for in article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, annex I (industrialized) countries that have committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions receive additional emission credits if they help to implement emissions-reducing projects in developing countries. However, the planting of forests in order to benefit from the mechanism may result in evictions, against which the local populations concerned may be insufficiently protected. The REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) scheme, launched in 2005 and strengthened at the 13th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, convened in Bali in December 2007, may represent a threat to forest dwellers, whose customary rights over the forests on which they depend for their livelihoods are not widely recognized, if the State or other actors are tempted to appropriate the benefits derived from carbon sequestration. Governments are also working to protect natural environments by creating wildlife reserves, national parks and other protected areas. Ecosystems perform vital services for agriculture, including support of the soil structure and soil retention, nutrient cycling, dung burial and pest control, pollination, water provision and purification, biodiversity and atmospheric regulation. However, the implementation of conservation measures, including land-use planning, should take into account the right to food of people who depend on the land for their livelihoods.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- The preparation of the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and other Natural Resources, led by FAO, is the single most important attempt to follow up on the commitments made at the Conference, and the Declaration of the World Summit on Food Security, held in 2009, underlines that link. It is too early to assess the Guidelines in the light of what they promise to achieve. At the regional level, however, the African Union's Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa are an important step in that direction, and the Latin American project to follow up on the Conference, launched in August 2009, involves a large number of countries in the operationalization of the commitments set out in the Declaration. But the overall picture remains uneven across regions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph