'Human rights and the environmental rule of law', 24 March 2021

This Summary Brief links SDG16 (on peace, justice and strong institutions), the environmental rule of law, human rights and a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. It additionally examines the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and ... good practices and ongoing challenges, including the legal protections needed for environmental human rights defenders...

[T]he killings, human rights violations against and abuse of EHRDs may violate international law, and undermine sustainable development at the local, national, regional, and international levels. It is important to recognize and account for the compounding risks faced by EHRDs who experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, including women and Indigenous EHRDs. UN Agencies, national governments, non-government organisations, the private sector and the general community must understand the vital role of EHRDs... The contributions made by EHRDs need to be duly recognized, encouraged, and promoted so as to provide a safe environment for them, accelerate their participation and inclusion in the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development...

SDG Target 16.10 includes freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of assembly, access to information, civic space and free, independent, pluralistic and diverse media. These are all critical to ... holding accountable the public institutions and officials as well as the private sector...

National Human Rights Institutions ... have focused on the emerging issues of business and human rights, the SDGs and climate change... [T]he Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines ... conducted a landmark national inquiry on climate change ... to investigate if 47 coal, cement, oil and gas companies (the ‘Carbon Majors’) had ‘breached their responsibilities to respect the rights of the Filipino people’ by exacerbating the climate crisis... The inquiry has been described as the world’s first investigation into corporate responsibility for the climate crisis...