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The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- The global media has been systematically critical of the United Nations. For example, the Economist has accused the United Nations of dodging its responsibility, the New York Times argues that it has "failed to face up to its role in [Haiti's] continuing tragedy", Business Insider has referred to the cholera outbreak as "the UN's Watergate", the Washington Post has commented that "by refusing to acknowledge responsibility, the United Nations jeopardizes its standing and moral authority".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Climate change and migration 2012, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- Third, if current greenhouse gas emission trends continue, small-island, low-lying developing States, such as Tuvalu, the Maldives and Kiribati, may be lost to sea level rise, rendering their inhabitants stateless. Some countries, including Tuvalu, are already negotiating agreements with their neighbours to relocate their populations. Other States such as the Maldives have started saving to buy land for its population in the future.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Use of legislation to regulate activities of human rights defenders 2012, para. 72
- Paragraph text
- A system of derogations is enshrined in various human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This permits States to temporarily modify their obligations in exceptional circumstances, such as in times of emergency, including armed conflicts, civil and violent unrest, environmental and natural disasters.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Humanitarian
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Mapping and framing security of tenure 2013, para. 94
- Paragraph text
- In addition, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation legislation, and measures such as planned relocation, natural hazard risk mapping and land zoning for residential housing, have been used to bypass eviction protections or may be phrased in a manner that could be misused to forcibly evict people.
- 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
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- Water contamination can be equally damaging. In Guatemala, for example, contamination of the Pasión River with the pesticide malathion, used on palm oil plantations, killed thousands of fish and affected 23 species of fish. This in turn deprived 12,000 people in 14 communities of their primary source of food and livelihood.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eradicating contemporary forms of slavery from supply chains 2015, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- The mining and forestry sectors have also been cited in reports on forced labour in supply chains. Here risks include vulnerability arising from the isolated nature of workplaces, the role of private security firms, the presence of organized criminals attracted by high value commodities such as gold or other minerals, and the growth of illegal, unlicensed or unregulated mines and forestry operations that benefit from weak regulation and law enforcement.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Violence
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change further notes that in Central America, north-east Brazil and parts of the Andean region, increases in temperature and decreases in rainfall could lower productivity by 2030, aggravating food security among the poorest members of society.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- Second, States have an obligation to protect the right to food. They must ensure that enterprises or individuals do not deprive individuals of their access to adequate food. In the context of fisheries policies, this requires States, in particular, to protect the access rights of traditional fishing communities from industrial fishing and to control private actors that could affect the lands, territories and water on which these communities depend.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- Farmer field schools have been shown to significantly reduce the amounts of pesticides use, as inputs are being replaced by knowledge. Large-scale studies from Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh recorded 35 to 92 per cent reduction in insecticide use in rice, and 34 to 66 per cent reduction in pesticide use, combined with 4 to 14 per cent better yields recorded in cotton production in China, India and Pakistan. Farmer field schools have also proven to be empowering by helping farmers to organize themselves better, and stimulating continued learning. The successful dissemination of the push-pull strategy (PPS) in East Africa, promoted by the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), is largely due to the demonstration of fields managed by model farmers, which attracts visits by other farmers during field days, and to partnerships with national research systems in Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and other countries that have made research and development efforts to bring about the necessary adaptations such as choice of maize cultivars. The growth of the Campesino a Campesino movement in Cuba relied on technical advisers and coordinators supported by the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAB). Between 2001 and 2009, the number of "promotores" increased from 114 to 11,935, and a total of 121,000 workshops on agroecological practices were organized.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- Environmental sustainability is a concern where there is not an adequate sanitation system to remove the water that is brought into a household. In urban areas, in particular, this can be a problem when water is piped into a settlement without adequate removal systems. Beyond the pollution of water bodies and the consequent impacts on health, stagnant and standing water can encourage the breeding of mosquitoes, including those responsible for spreading malaria, dengue and yellow fever.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- Households may also have their own water supply from a private well or borehole. Private wells may not provide a regular or year-round supply of water, with seasonal dry periods being problematic in some regions. To ensure water quality, wells must be protected from animals and other sources of contamination. Wells in high-density urban areas are often at great risk of contamination. In some instances, a household will sell water to neighbours. Although this may be safe in some rural areas, there is seldom any regulation of water quality or affordability, or of construction and maintenance.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- In Argentina, a court considered the situation of impoverished neighbourhoods in Córdoba, where wells had been contaminated with faecal and other matter from a water treatment plant overflowing with untreated sewage. The court ordered the municipality to take urgent measures to address the situation, including providing 200 litres of safe water per household per day until a permanent solution was found. With regard to the licensing of projects such as mining, the Special Rapporteur has received numerous communications alleging water contamination.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Large-scale mining companies undergo regular inspection and have unionized workers; however, child slavery in the mining and quarrying sector normally occurs in the small-scale (artisanal) mining and quarrying sector. The mining sector includes the extraction of minerals (such as coltan), precious metals (such as gold and silver), precious stones (such as diamonds and rubies) and semi-precious stones (such as tanzanite). Quarrying is extraction from an open pit in order to acquire stone or aggregate (sand, gravel or crushed rock) for the construction industry.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Environmental human rights defenders 2016, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur welcomes commitments by business enterprises to respect human rights and protect the environment, often expressed in public statements and policies, as well as through the adoption of voluntary guidelines and codes of conduct. The Equator Principles, for example, set out a framework which financial institutions can use to assess and manage the social and environmental risks and impacts of projects, as well as to meet minimum standards for due diligence.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Sixteen months after the earthquake, there were still 634,000 people in over 1,000 camps. Observers noted that the camp populations were declining more slowly than in 2010, suggesting that people had nowhere else to go or had decided that however precarious their situation in the camps, it was still better than their situation of origin. The earthquake thus highlighted long-entrenched patterns of discrimination and neglect. Disasters elsewhere have had similar effects.
- 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
- Equality & Inclusion
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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.
- 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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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.
- 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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- While regulators are mostly concerned about health risks through pesticide residues, their effects on non-target organisms are hugely underestimated. For example, neonicotinoids, a commonly used class of systemic insecticides, are causing soil degradation and water pollution and endangering vital ecosystem services such as biological pest control. Designed to damage the central nervous system of target pests, they can also cause harm to beneficial invertebrates as well as to birds, butterflies and other wildlife.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Preliminary survey on the root causes of attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism 2016, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- This is the case, for example, in the myths that persons with albinism cannot see during the day but have excellent vision at night, that desirable minerals such as mercury and gold flow through their veins or that they float on water and cannot drown. Other myths seeking to dehumanize persons with albinism include those portraying them as cannibals or monstrous creatures in certain folktales, literature and films, or claiming that they can communicate with non-earthly or extraterrestrial beings.
- Body
- Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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.
- 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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- In the case of Sardinal, the Costa Rican Supreme Court ordered the authorities to assess whether a permit should be granted to build a pipeline that would withdraw water from an aquifer, in order to make sure that the pipeline would not deprive the local population of water for personal and domestic use. Without certainty that there would be sufficient water, the pipeline would violate the residents' rights, including that to a healthy environment. A French court held a public water company accountable for ensuring that the water it provided was not detrimentally impacted by agricultural runoff. The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights found violations, inter alia of the rights to life and to health, owing to the failure of the Government of Nigeria to monitor the impact of oil operations polluting water in the Niger Delta.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- Many fish are also rich in micronutrients, especially the smaller fish that are accessible to people living in poverty. The consumption of fish therefore not only helps to combat hunger, but also can address hidden hunger, or micronutrient deficiency. In addition, the seasonal availability of fish in rural communities is often different from crops, meaning that fish can help to reduce seasonal vulnerability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Because the position taken by United Nations officials relies heavily on the claim that there remains doubt as to the source of the cholera outbreak and invokes the panel's report in support, it is appropriate both to assess the validity of the panel's consistently cited assessment and to consider more recent scientific assessments. Before doing so, it should be noted that there is a fundamental inconsistency in the panel's conclusions. After stating clearly that "the source of the Haiti cholera outbreak was due to contamination", the report goes on to say that "[t]he introduction of this cholera strain as a result of environmental contamination with feces could not have been the source of such an outbreak without simultaneous water and sanitation and health care system deficiencies". Presumably, the panel intended to say that the contamination could not alone have been the sole cause, had there not been deficiencies in the environment into which the faeces were released. But that is not in fact what the report states.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- In order to resolve the controversy, the Secretary-General, to his credit, established the panel of independent experts in January 2011. In its report, issued in May 2011, the panel expressly rejected the environmental theory. Instead, it found that "the evidence overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that the source of the Haiti cholera outbreak was due to contamination of the Mèyé Tributary of the Artibonite River with a pathogenic strain of current South Asian type Vibrio cholerae as a result of human activity". If the experts had left it at that, the conclusion would have been that MINUSTAH peacekeepers were responsible for the outbreak. But they went on to claim that the dumping of faeces alone "could not have been the source of such an outbreak without simultaneous water and sanitation and health care system deficiencies … coupled with conducive environmental and epidemiological conditions". By adding this observation, the experts suggested that nature, as well as the country's underdevelopment, were also to blame. This enabled them to reach their ultimate conclusion, that the "outbreak was caused by the confluence of circumstances … and was not the fault of, or deliberate action of, a group or individual".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Health
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on minority issues
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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?
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on minority issues
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on minority issues
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph