The Environment and Human Rights: the International Community’s Responses to Emerging Local and Global Challenges

This event, co-hosted by the Swiss Embassy and Wilson Center, examined the relationship between environmental issues and human rights.  The speakers specifically talked about the Human Rights Council of the U.N. and its role in preserving human rights while environmental policy decisions are made. Unfortunately human rights and environmental conservation have come into conflict numerous times.  The speaker looked at specific cases the Council has dealt with which concern local pollution being a violation of privacy rights.  The Council also looked at cases where protecting the environment appeared to be a justification for infringing on human rights, such as a case involving a gypsy family wanting to settle temporarily in England’s green belt, a protected open space.

The panel also spent a while discussing water and it’s relation to human rights.  After all water is important; without water, there is no life.  They stated that it is a U.N. declared human right for “access to clean water and sanitation.”  However the right to clean water is complex because it involves many other rights, such as the right to information, the right to be involved in decision-making processes, and the need to protect the environment.  If the environment is not protected, then where will clean water come from?  After all, the wetlands in the New York City Watershed supply water to half of New York’s population.[1]

There were a lot of interesting questions addressed during the panel.  One of the questions was, what happens to human rights during wartime when access to water is purposefully turned off?  If water is shut off, there is the intention of exterminating the civilian population just like starvation, and so it is looked at as a war crime.  Unfortunately there is sometimes an overlap between environmental conservation and violation of human rights, so it was interesting to explore this overlap with qualified panelists who have experience in this field and in the Human Rights Council.

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[1] “Wetlands in the Watersheds of the New York City Water Supply System.”

New York City Department of Environmental Protection. www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/brochures/wetlands.pdf