HRC58 - Joint statement - ID with the SR on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment
Human Rights Council – 58th session
JST to be delivered at the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment
14 March 2025
Mr. President,
I deliver this statement on behalf of a cross-regional group of countries.
Environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs), including ocean defenders, are amongst the most at-risk human rights defenders in the world.
These defenders, including women and girls environmental human rights defenders, work at the front line of environmental protection, often in remote or isolated locations. They frequently seek to exercise their human rights to push back against unsustainable and environmentally damaging projects. For their brave work, they often face grave risks, including to extrajudicial killing, arbitrary detention, and criminalisation.
Let us be clear, the work EHRDs is in favour of sustainable development and as such we should all protect their work
EHRDs do incredibly important work to protect the environment, including the ocean, from biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution. The best way to protect the environment, is to protect and empower those who seek to defend the environment.
Mr. President,
This Council should step up its efforts to better protect and empower EHRDs, particularly women and girls, by promoting equitable, diverse, meaningful and safe representation, in all our relevant work.
The situation and agency of EHRDs should also be recognised in other UN fora, including international environmental conferences on ocean protection, biodiversity and climate change -including COP30 in Brazil-, as well as the outcome documents of those meetings. We urge all States to do so, and to encourage their participation in those meetings.
Thank you.
