A/HRC/RES/40/11
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
2 April 2019
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Fortieth session
25 February–22 March 2019
Agenda item 3
Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council
on 21 March 2019
40/11.
Recognizing the contribution of environmental human rights defenders
to the enjoyment of human rights, environmental protection and
sustainable development
The Human Rights Council,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights and
other relevant instruments,
Guided also by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the
Paris Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 70/1 of 25 September 2015, entitled
“Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, which is
grounded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international human rights
treaties, the United Nations Millennium Declaration and the 2005 World Summit Outcome
and informed by other instruments, such as the Declaration on the Right to Development,
Recalling also the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012
and its outcome document entitled, “The Future We Want”, which reaffirmed the principles
of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development,
Recalling further General Assembly resolution 53/144 of 9 December 1998, by
which the Assembly adopted by consensus the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility
of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally
Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, commonly referred to as the
Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, and the continued validity and application of all
its provisions, and reiterating the importance of the Declaration and its promotion and full
and effective implementation,
Recalling all other previous resolutions on this subject, including Human Rights
Council resolutions 22/6 of 21 March 2013, 31/32 of 24 March 2016 and 34/5 of 23 March
2017, and General Assembly resolutions 68/181 of 18 December 2013, 70/161 of 17
December 2015 and 72/247 of 24 December 2017, and recalling also Council resolutions
on human rights and the environment, the most recent of which are resolutions 31/8 of 23
March 2016, 34/20 of 24 March 2017 and 37/8 of 22 March 2018,
Reiterating that all human rights and fundamental freedoms are universal,
indivisible, interdependent and interrelated and should be promoted and implemented in a
GE.19-05450(E)