Experts hail UNGA resolution, recognising right to healthy, clean, sustainable environment

AMMAN — The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) passed a resolution on Thursday recognising the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, a move hailed by environmental experts.

The resolution was met with overwhelming support by the 161 UNGA member states, including Jordan, who voted in its favour, while only eight countries abstained from voting, according to the UN website.

In a statement issued on Thursday, UN Secretary General António Guterres welcomed the resolution and described it as a “landmark development”.

“The resolution will help reduce environmental injustices, close protection gaps and empower people, especially those that are in vulnerable situations, including environmental human rights defenders, children, youth, women and indigenous peoples. [It] will also help states accelerate the implementation of their environmental and human rights obligations and commitments,” he said. 

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet also hailed the resolution, but noted that, unless combined with action, it is “not enough”. 

“States must implement their international commitments and scale up their efforts to realise it. We will all suffer much worse effects from environmental crises if we do not work together to collectively avert them now,” she said in a statement on Thursday. 

Head of the Dibeen Association for Environmental Development Hala Murad noted that addressing the issue of climate change within the frame of human rights is an “important” and “long-overdue step”.

“All rights are connected to the health of the environment. The growing threats of climate change infringe the right to life, the right to safety and the right to ownership, to name a few,” Murad told The Jordan Times.

Moreover, the resolution constitutes a “significant tool” that will play a role in strengthening the environmental movement in Jordan by allowing it to adopt a rights-based approach in addressing the issue of climate change and environmental violations, Murad added. 

She also pointed out that “activists didn’t have a legislative basis to rely on before”.

“It also strengthens legal accountability both at a national and international level, subjecting all national, regional and international activities, agreements and projects to environmental auditing and monitoring,” she continued.

Murad noted that since Jordan was one of the countries that voted in favour of the resolution, the Kingdom now carries a responsibility to review its laws and regulations and insure they are in line with the right to a healthy environment.

“It’s a first step that facilitates the path towards adding a clear article to the Jordanian constitution granting the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment,” said Murad.

National Climate Change Expert at the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) Batir Wardam also noted that the lack of national legislations relating to environmental rights must be addressed.

“Voting in favour of this resolution entails certain responsibilities on a national level, such as adding legislations that acknowledge access to a healthy environment as a human right,” Wardam told The Jordan Times.

It also provides protection for Jordanian citizens against polluting entities, enabling them to seek legal action against them, he added. 

“Establishing legislations and putting the issue within a rights-based context raises public awareness and forces people to take the urgent issue of climate change and environmental rights more seriously,” Laith Al Rahahleh, an environmental consultant at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), told The Jordan Times, adding that the resolution increases the accountability of people and institutions endangering the environment.