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Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- The protection of land-users' rights should not be limited to improving farmers' security of tenure. Fisherfolk need access to fishing grounds and may be severely affected by the fencing-off of land that provides access to the sea or to rivers. Pastoralists need grazing grounds for the animals that they raise. For these groups, as well as those practicing itinerant forms of agriculture, the formalization of property rights and the establishment of land registries may be the problem, not the solution: it may cause them to be fenced off from the resources on which they depend, making them victims of the vast enclosure movement that may result from titling. In Kenya, pastoralists whose rights were ignored in the formalization process have reportedly been the victims of violent land-grabbing by ranchers and others seeking scarce resources. Since they have no legal claim to the land, they cannot seek redress. In the United Republic of Tanzania, five years after a major titling effort had begun, pastoralists reported their eviction from multiple common grazing areas and were under threat of losing other grazing lands because those lands had been classified as "unused".
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- Secondly, just as multiple food systems must be combined to improve resilience through enhanced diversity, different forms of farming can coexist, each fulfilling a different function. The example of Brazil suggests that family farms can be supported even in the vicinity of highly competitive, large-scale agricultural producers and that such coexistence can be viable, provided the government is aware of the different functions that different agricultural models serve to fulfil, and adopts a balanced approach towards them (A/HRC/13/33/Add.6, paras. 43 and 44). In many countries, however, this coexistence has failed, and the balance has shifted almost entirely in favour of the large-scale export-led agricultural sector. The lesson that emerges is that the transition to agrifood policies that support the realization of the right to food requires major political efforts to restructure support around agroecological, labour-intensive, poverty-reducing forms of agriculture.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The right to access information 2013, para. 107
- Paragraph text
- Government officials who release confidential information concerning violations of the law, wrongdoing by public bodies, grave cases of corruption, a serious threat to health, safety or the environment, or a violation of human rights or humanitarian law (i.e. whistle-blowers) should, if they act in good faith, be protected against legal, administrative or employment-related sanctions. Other individuals, including journalists, other media personnel and civil society representatives, who receive, possess or disseminate classified information because they believe that it is in the public interest, should not be subject to liability unless they place persons in an imminent situation of serious harm.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Humanitarian
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Best practices that promote and protect the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association 2012, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur further concurs with the assessment of the ODIHR Panel of Experts that "the free flow of traffic should not automatically take precedence over freedom of peaceful assembly". In this regard, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has indicated that "the competent institutions of the State have a duty to design operating plans and procedures that will facilitate the exercise of the right of assembly ... [including] rerouting pedestrian and vehicular traffic in a certain area". Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur points to a decision of the Spanish Constitutional Court which stated that "in a democratic society, the urban space is not only an area for circulation, but also for participation".
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Comparative study of enabling environments for associations and businesses 2015, para. 103
- Paragraph text
- Similarly many States afford more protection to corporations engaged in natural resource exploitation than to groups peacefully protesting their activities. The shooting to death of over 30 miners in South Africa by police during a workers' strike is an egregious example of such preferential treatment. Individuals and communities opposed to natural resource exploitation activities are labelled as "anti-development" and "enemies of the State" and portrayed as undermining States' efforts to promote economic growth and development. Their activities are criminalized and their claims disregarded, while corporations continue exploitation activities.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Similar lessons can be learnt from post-disaster situations. Disasters occur in a social context framed by complex issues of power, politics and longstanding vulnerability and poverty, including widespread tenure insecurity. Understanding this complexity is fundamental to developing and implementing successful responses. This is illustrated in the case of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras in October 1998. According to official estimates Hurricane Mitch left 21 cities severely damaged, 82,735 houses damaged, 66,188 houses destroyed and 44,150 people homeless. In addition 123 health centres and 531 roads were damaged and eight health centres and 189 bridges were destroyed. As a result, an estimated 1.5 million people were negatively affected.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Poverty
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Large-scale development project and human rights defenders 2013, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- In the context of large-scale development projects, timely disclosure of information about project conceptualization and preparation, including contracts and subcontracts, documents with information about parties involved, financing frameworks, terms and conditions, impact assessments and mitigation strategies should be made available to the extent possible. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a multi-stakeholder voluntary mechanism that aims to increase the transparency of natural resource revenues by developing standardized reporting requirements for companies and Governments, has made a significant, positive contribution to increasing transparency in this sector. The initiative also offers relevant lessons learned regarding the difficulties and, at times, the unwillingness of Governments and private companies to disclose such information.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Environmental human rights defenders 2016, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- Recent reports have pointed to a growing opposition between what could be considered a commodity-based approach, prioritizing economic growth and midterm profits, and rights-based approaches, favouring populations' interests and sustainability. Communities protesting against projects that threaten their very livelihood and existence have often faced stigmatization and attacks from States and corporations, which label them "anti-development". Yet, these defenders often seek to preserve natural resources and to ensure a holistic and long-term approach to development where land, water, air and forests are not reduced to mere marketable goods. The commodification and financialization of nature often lead to simplifying the real "value" of the environment, ignoring the social or cultural dimensions and the complex interactions of elements within and between ecosystems.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Environmental human rights defenders 2016, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- Corruption is often a consequence of the lack of transparency in such projects. This is exemplified by environmental impact assessments that were not performed with the participation of the affected communities, were unavailable to them or were inaccessible owing to the complexity of the documentation or its language. Yet, Governments use transparency as a pretext to harass organizations opposing large-scale projects. Moreover, the complexity of the structures and processes of many large-scale development projects also makes it difficult to clearly identify the multiplicity of stakeholders (banks, anonymous companies, international investors, local suppliers, funding institutions, etc.) and the chain of responsibility for ensuring accountability for certain violations.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Minorities in situations of humanitarian crises 2016, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur also includes disasters in her report, whether natural or man-made (see section H below). Defined as calamitous events that seriously disrupt the functioning of a community or society, disasters cause human, material and economic or environmental losses that exceed the community's or society's ability to cope using its own resources. These can be a result of spontaneous natural hazards, such as hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and wildfires, or be a result of more frequent slow-onset and mega disasters such as recurring droughts or floods. Disasters can result in the devastation of communities, loss of lives, leading to displacement, or migration, and can also lead to more complex emergencies such as loss of livelihoods, famine, housing crises and medical pandemics, which can also lead to mass displacement.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on minority issues
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association in the context of natural resource exploitation projects 2015, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- States also have an obligation to prevent conflict before it starts, including by creating a legal environment that promotes transparency and fairness. The area of land rights, for example, is often key. The absence of legal frameworks that clearly spell out land rights creates opportunities for arbitrary expropriation or land grabbing, which in turn can lead to conflict. Opaque procedures for granting exploitation licences and concessions aggravate the situation and often fuel social protests.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Large-scale development project and human rights defenders 2013, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- For the purposes of the present report, the term "large-scale development projects" refers to the acquisition, lease or transfer of land or natural resources for commercial investment purposes. The Special Rapporteur does not identify a specific threshold for what should constitute "large-scale" but considers the impact of a project on its surroundings, specifically with regard to the human rights of affected communities and those defending the rights of those communities, to be a key factor.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Climate change and migration 2012, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Second, arid areas, such as the African Sahel and other dry regions in Central America, Africa and Asia, are vulnerable to increases in temperature and changes in precipitation patterns. In many places deserts are expanding, and regions that were barely habitable will become uninhabitable. Studies have shown that local populations have long coped with difficult environmental conditions through migratory strategies: seasonal migration to towns (African Sahel) or pastoralism (Somalia). In such circumstances, desertification triggers adaptive changes in those migratory strategies.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- States should discharge their duties to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food in the fisheries sector by moving towards sustainable resource use while ensuring that the rights and livelihoods of small-scale fishers and coastal communities are respected and that the food security of all groups depending on fish is improved. This is a difficult balance to strike, but, without swift and bold action by States, the contribution made by fisheries to securing the right to food will diminish, with considerable consequences, in particular for poorer rural communities that depend on fisheries for both their nutritional needs and their income. Both coastal and flag States should accept their duties in this regard and should actively involve the fishing communities themselves, both in fisheries management and in the design and implementation of policies in adjacent sectors that could affect fishing.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- Individual transferable quotas systems may lead to rent capture by some actors in a privileged position, which is difficult to reconcile with poverty-reduction objectives. An alternative might be to allow operators to rent quotas from the Government so that quotas are periodically redistributed on equity grounds. Transferability of quotas (conceived as property rights) will inevitably lead to monopolization, unless limited to transferability between the deceased holder and his/her descendants (if they also fish). Indeed, the Human Rights Committee noted that a system in which the quotas originally held could be sold or leased at market prices instead of reverting to the State for allocation to new quota holders in accordance with fair and equitable criteria might result in discrimination in violation of article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (see CCPR/C/91/D/1306/2004). Other systems can be explored that combine sustainability requirements (limiting overfishing) and redistributive aims based on human rights norms and standards.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 75
- Paragraph text
- Locally developed crops have been shown to be extremely adaptable and robust because they have been bred over generations specifically to cope with difficult ecological and social conditions. For example, "farmer rice varieties" are often more productive than imported varieties of rice and can grow with less input than modern varieties and require less maintenance. Furthermore, research has shown that farms run on agroecological principles can be more resilient in response to natural disasters such as hurricanes. Farms in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala that relied on sustainable agricultural methods suffered considerably less damage than conventional farms following Hurricane Mitch in 1998, with sustainable farms retaining up to 40 per cent more topsoil and suffering less economic loss than neighbouring conventional farms. Similar studies conducted in Mexico following Hurricane Stan and in Cuba following Hurricane Ike had similar findings. Agroecological farms were also able to recover faster after the hurricane.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- During the 1970s, the pesticide DCBP was used extensively on banana and pineapple plantations around the world. In Davao, the Philippines, where the pesticide was used in the 1980s, high levels of sterility were scientifically proven to have resulted from exposure. Other conditions, including cancer, asthma, tuberculosis and skin disease, were also detected, but a linkage was not scientifically proven. While local authorities banned aerial spraying following community protests, the Supreme Court of the Philippines reversed the ban, allegedly under pressure from banana corporations. Further, suits brought by plantation workers have been dismissed, leaving victims without compensation. Twenty years on, despite a global ban on DBCP, soils and water sources remain contaminated.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Pesticides also present a serious threat to drinking water, particularly in agricultural areas, which often depend on groundwater. While it can take several decades before pesticides applied in fields appear in water wells, high levels of herbicides in agricultural areas have already caused health problems for some communities. For example, in the United States of America, where over 70 million pounds of atrazine are used annually, runoff into water supplies has been linked to increased risk of birth defects. While atrazine was banned in the European Union in 2004, some European countries still detect it in groundwater today.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Neonicotinoids are accused of being responsible for “colony collapse disorder” of bees worldwide. For example, heavy use of these insecticides has been blamed for the 50 per cent decline over 25 years in honeybee populations in both the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This decline threatens the very basis of agriculture, given that wild bees and managed honeybees play the greatest role in pollinating crops. According to estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), of some 100 crop species (which provide 90 per cent of global food), 71 per cent are pollinated by bees. The European Union, unlike the United States, restricted the use of certain neonicotinoids in 2013.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Such laws are often framed under the guise of public health and safety but, in reality, the aim is to "beautify" an area for the promotion of tourism and business or to increase property values. Examples are countless: in Zimbabwe, an operation to "sweep out the rubbish" through demolitions of shanty towns in 2005 left up to 1.5 million people homeless in the middle of the winter. In June 2014, the Mayor of Honolulu introduced new measures to crack down on homelessness because tourists want to see "their paradise, not homeless people sleeping". In Medellín, Colombia, during the World Urban Forum, the homeless population was transported outside of the city. In Australia, "move on" laws permit authorities to "disperse" homeless people "where a person's mere presence could cause anxiety to another person or interfere with another's 'reasonable enjoyment' of the space".
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Ensuring the inclusion of minority issues in post- 2015 development agendas 2014, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- Addressing inequality is an overarching goal that, if it is achieved, will inevitably bring with it benefits for disadvantaged minority groups across a wide range of other areas that the post-2015 development agenda consultations are addressing. The rationale behind such an inequalities-based approach is strong, however it must be driven at a global and donor level to overcome barriers of discrimination, power-dynamics, and lack of political will that are often evident at the national level. In the Synthesis Report of the Global Thematic Public Consultation on the Post-2015 Development Agenda focusing on inequalities, it is stated that "there is considerable evidence that inequalities in one structural domain increase the likelihood of inequalities in others. In the event of opportunity for improvements in one domain, the chances of progress are often undermined or rendered inaccessible by simultaneous intersecting disadvantage in another. These intersecting and mutually reinforcing inequalities are often rooted in historical relationships, and continue to be reproduced through discrimination in social, economic, environmental and political domains."
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on minority issues
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- As the magnitude of the disaster became known, key international officials carefully avoided acknowledging that the outbreak had resulted from discharges from the MINUSTAH camp. The implication that cholera had come from elsewhere also drew support from an environmental theory suggested by some scientific observers according to which the cholera microbe is naturally present in many backwater settings and can be activated by environmental shocks such as the earthquake that hit Haiti in January 2010 or by unusually heavy rains. Nevertheless, most scientific and media sources rejected this theory and placed the blame clearly upon the peacekeepers.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Health
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association in the workplace 2016, para. 87
- Paragraph text
- For example, despite well-documented, systematic and decades-long violations of freedom of association in Colombia, the United States signed a free trade agreement with the country in 2012. Four years later, unions, frustrated by lax enforcement and lack of political will, filed a trade complaint charging widespread and ongoing violations of freedom of association in the petroleum and sugar cane sectors. Canadian unions have filed a similar complaint under their country's bilateral trade agreement with Colombia.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Modalities for the establishment of femicides/gender-related killings watch 2016, para. 82d
- Paragraph text
- [States should undertake to do the following:] Cooperate to establish and implement a common methodology for the collection of comparable data and the establishment of a femicide watch;
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association in the context of natural resource exploitation projects 2015, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- In countries experiencing social conflict over natural resource exploitation, individuals who exercise their right to freedom of peaceful assembly are frequently framed as "inciting" communities to resist and disrupt "development projects". Peaceful assembly and association rights are not seen as a legitimate vehicle to express concerns, but as deliberate attempts to undermine the State's efforts to promote economic growth and development. Those who oppose natural resource exploitation activities are labelled as "anti-development" or "enemies of the State". Attacks are also used as an intimidation tactic to force communities to accept exploitation projects.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Environment
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, African Americans and poor people (with the two categories to a large extent blurred) bore the brunt of the devastation because, for the most part, they lived most often in the lower-lying, more flood-prone sections of the city. In addition large numbers of the metropolitan area's population (being generally poor) lacked the means to escape the flood. The particular impacts and costs of the hurricane were therefore intimately linked to pre existing social, economic and land use patterns, directly related to housing and urban planning policies.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- The most recent large-scale study points to the same conclusions. Research commissioned by the Foresight Global Food and Farming Futures project of the UK Government reviewed 40 projects in 20 African countries where sustainable intensification was developed during the 2000s. The projects included crop improvements (particularly improvements through participatory plant breeding on hitherto neglected orphan crops), integrated pest management, soil conservation and agro-forestry. By early 2010, these projects had documented benefits for 10.39 million farmers and their families and improvements on approximately 12.75 million hectares. Crop yields more than doubled on average (increasing 2.13-fold) over a period of 3-10 years, resulting in an increase in aggregate food production of 5.79 million tonnes per year, equivalent to 557 kg per farming household.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Agroecology improves resilience to climate change. Climate change means more extreme weather-related events. The use of agroecological techniques can significantly cushion the negative impacts of such events, for resilience is strengthened by the use and promotion of agricultural biodiversity at ecosystem, farm system and farmer field levels, which is materialized by many agroecological approaches. Following Hurricane Mitch in 1998, a large-scale study on 180 communities of smallholders from southern to northern Nicaragua demonstrated that farming plots cropped with simple agroecological methods (including rock bunds or dikes, green manure, crop rotation and the incorporation of stubble, ditches, terraces, barriers, mulch, legumes, trees, plowing parallel to the slope, no-burn, live fences, and zero-tillage) had on average 40 per cent more topsoil, higher field moisture, less erosion and lower economic losses than control plots on conventional farms. On average, agroecological plots lost 18 per cent less arable land to landslides than conventional plots and had 69 per cent less gully erosion compared to conventional farms.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Ensuring the inclusion of minority issues in post- 2015 development agendas 2014, para. 76
- Paragraph text
- A 2012 regional Roma survey, revealed that between 70 and 90 per cent of Roma surveyed reported living in conditions of severe material deprivation. Roma settlements frequently lack energy provision, sometimes because they are classified as illegal settlements and do not fall within energy and infrastructure plans. Communities in Bulgaria, visited by the mandate holder in 2011, described paying more for energy from private providers and being unable to afford energy bills owing to lack of employment and low incomes. Key questions must be asked at the national level, which include: who are those most affected by lack of access to affordable energy?
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on minority issues
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Access to information in international organizations 2017, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- And yet, despite the fact that intergovernmental organizations make much of the public work of their institutions available online, including legal instruments, resolutions, decisions of committees and monitoring bodies, field work and webcasts of public meetings, few organizations have access-to-information policies that enable the public, either on an individual basis or through the work of journalists and researchers, to make requests for information not otherwise disclosed. Organizations that do include such policies, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Bank, the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and a handful of others — mostly international financial institutions and funds — are discussed in section III below. Even if they entertain such requests, most organizations make little or no effort to publicize their willingness or to highlight the standards by which decisions to disclose information are made.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph