Download Selected Resources on Energy, Environment, Climate and Human

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Selected Resources on
Energy, Environment, Climate and Human Rights
Compiled by the GIZ project “Realizing Human Rights in Development Cooperation”
http://www.gtz.de/human-rights
January 2011
Contents
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IV.
Human rights in German development policy ......................................................................... 1
Human rights reference documents related to energy and environment ................................ 1
More on energy, environment and human rights ..................................................................... 1
More on climate change and human rights ............................................................................. 3
I. Human rights in German development policy
BMZ (2010), Human rights in practice – Fact sheets on a human rights-based approach in
development cooperation
Collection of 2-page factsheets that explain what the human rights-based approach in development
cooperation means in general and for all priority sectors of German development cooperation. The
factsheet on the energy sector is on pages 14-15 and the factsheet on environment and natural
resources on pages 18-19.
http://www.bmz.de/en/publications/topics/human_rights/BMZ_Information_Brochure_7_2010e.pdf
(English)
http://www.bmz.de/de/publikationen/themen/menschenrechte/BMZ_Informationsbroschuere_07_2010.
pdf (German)
II. Human rights reference documents related to energy and environment
International human treaties make no specific reference to the environment or explicitly formulate
environmental rights. However, the human rights to health, life, property, housing, information and
family include various obligations related to a clean and healthy environment. Taken together they
form a substantive legal basis for an emerging human right to a clean and healthy environment, which
was confirmed and further substantiated by jurisdiction of human right courts. Likewise, there exists no
explicit right to household energy but such a right could be deduced from the right to housing and an
adequate standard of living and the right to benefit from scientific progress.
The Website Right to Environment explains the somewhat complex and implicit legal basis of the
“right to a clean and healthy environment”. See section For Lawyers: Treaties and Cases for an
overview of what international and regional human rights treaties and cases say about the
environment.
http://www.righttoenvironment.org/default.asp?pid=53
III. More on energy, environment and human rights
UNDP (2005), Integrating Human Rights into Energy and Environment Programming – A
Reference Paper
This paper explains the relevance of human rights to energy and environment programmes and
intends to contribute towards mainstreaming the human rights based approach in UNDP projects in
this sector. Based on the experiences and lessons learned of various development organizations, it
identifies the main issues and challenges that arise in adopting a human rights-based approach into
programming. The draft checklist (annex A) for practitioners offers specific and practical guidance.
http://hurilink.org/tools/Integrating_HRs_into_Energy_and_Environment_Programming.pdf
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Earthjustice (2007), Environmental Rights Report
This report looks dry but actually offers a wide array of interesting information on how environmental
issues are dealt with in the UN human rights system and regional and international conventions. It
further analyses the approaches of other international actors and their approaches in numerous case
studies. According to the report, while environmental harm continues to undermine the enjoyment of
human rights around the world, a growing number of international institutions recognize environmental
rights, and the constitutions of 118 countries guarantee the right to a healthy environment.
http://www.earthjustice.org/library/references/2007-environmental-rights-report.pdf
Human Rights Dialogue (2004), Environmental Rights, Series 2, No. 11 (Spring 2004)
The spring 2004 issue of Human Rights Dialogue explores the definition, status, and relevance of the
concept of environmental rights in law and politics around the world, and the extent to which a human
rights lens is a helpful way in which to view environmental issues. Essays in this issue are organized
around four themes: 1) the inseparability of human rights and environmentalism; 2) conflicts between
human rights and environmental goals; 3) the relationship between the concept and application of
environmental justice and of human rights; and 4) the enforceability of environmental rights.
http://www.cceia.org/resources/publications/dialogue/2_11/index.html
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN): Conservation and Human Rights
The IUCN has thoroughly explored the links between conservation and human rights: certain
approaches to conservation can have negative human rights impacts, most often through protected
areas related displacement and oppressive enforcement measures; at the same time conservation
helps ensure sustainable availability of resources and ecosystem services that are critical to fulfilling
human rights. The following websites contain a number of resources:
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Conservation and Human Rights:
http://www.iucn.org/about/union/commissions/ceesp/topics/rights/
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Human Rights and Governance in Conservation
http://www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/social_policy/sp_themes/sp_themes_hrande/
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Governance of Natural Resources, Equity and Human Rights
http://www.iucn.org/about/work/initiatives/sp_cprihome/sp_cpri_themes_/sp_cpri_natural_reso
urces/
See also the following publications:
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IUCN (2007), Conservation and Human Rights. Policy Matters No.15
This issue offers an introduction to the subject as well as a wide range of contributions and
case studies from numerous countries.
http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/pm15.pdf
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IUCN (2008), Rights and Conservation in a Diverse and Sustainable World: A Journey at
the 2008 IUCN World Conservation Congress
http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/rights_and_conservation_journey_report.pdf
Elli Louka (2002), Biodiversity and Human Rights: The International Rules for the Protection of
Biodiversity, Brill Academic Publishers
This book reviews biodiversity protection policies and regulation. It explores the links between
biodiversity and human rights and advocates a more people-centred approach to the protection of
biodiversity.
http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=210&pid=28042 (website of publisher)
UNCCD (2008), Human Rights and Desertification – Exploring the Complementarity of
International Human Rights Law and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification,
Issue Paper No 1.
This report by the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification elaborates
on the possibilities of integrating human rights and the environment into the fight against
desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD). It points out the complementarities between
human rights law and the UNCCD and explicitly advocates a human rights-based approach.
http://www.unccd.int/publicinfo/docs/HumanRightsandDesertification.pdf
UN Practitioners Portal on the HRBA Programming – Resources on the Environment
A growing collection of resources on applying a human rights-based approach in policies and
programmes for the protection of the environment
http://hrbaportal.org/?page_id=3185
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IV. More on climate change and human rights
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) (2009), Report on
the relationship between climate change and human rights
This report discusses how observed and projected impacts of climate change have implications for the
enjoyment of human rights and for the obligations of States under international human rights law and
gives an extensive overview of the legal basis of a human rights perspective on environment.
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/climatechange/study.htm
More material can be found on the OHCHR theme page on human rights and climate change
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/climatechange/index.htm
including the Human Rights Council Resolution 7/23 “Human rights and climate change”:
http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/E/HRC/resolutions/A_HRC_RES_7_23.pdf
International Council on Human Rights Policy (2008), Climate Change and Human Rights – A
Rough Guide
This concise and easy to read report discusses the interrelatedness of climate change and human
rights. It does not only discuss the effects of climate change on human rights but also draws attention
to how international human rights law and experience might help to shape policy making on climate
change in the two core policy areas of adaptation and mitigation. (Download of report under
“Documents”)
http://www.ichrp.org/en/projects/136
Oxfam (2008): Climate Wrongs and Human Rights – Putting people at the heart of climatechange policy. Briefing Paper 117.
This paper intends to bring the human rights perspective into the debate of climate change policies,
which are largely dominated by economic considerations. It sets out an approach for designing climate
change policies with human rights norms and principles at their core and highlights some hotspots
where the current direction of climate policy is dangerously off course.
http://www.oxfam.org/en/policy/bp117-climate-wrongs-and-human-rights
Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) (2009):
Human Rights and Climate Change – Practical Steps for Implementation
The report outlines practical steps to be taken within current international regimes to protect human
rights in the context of climate change.
http://www.ciel.org/Publications/CCandHRE_Feb09.pdf
2-page summary of the core recommendations of the report
http://www.ciel.org/Publications/WayForward_25Feb09.pdf
Displacement Solutions (2010): Climate Change Displaced Persons and Housing, Land and
Property Rights Preliminary Strategies for Rights-Based Planning and Programming to Resolve
Climate-Induced Displacement
A discussion of climate change induced infringements of people’s housing, land and property rights
with country cases studies from Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, Fiji and Bangladesh and policy
recommendations.
http://displacementsolutions.org/files/documents/DS_Climate_change_strategies.pdf
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (2008): Indigenous and Traditional
Peoples and Climate Change, Issue Paper
The paper examines the potential impacts of climate change on the livelihoods and cultures of
indigenous and traditional communities. It identifies options of adaptation to and mitigation of climate
change based on the traditional knowledge of communities at risk, in order to reduce their vulnerability
and to enhance their cultural resilience and adaptation capacity.
http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/indigenous_peoples_climate_change.pdf
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