Description

Human rights are inherent to all humans regardless of their race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. ¹ Human rights are universal, inalienable, indivisible and interdependent. The principles of equality and non-discrimination cut across all human rights. ²

Human rights and biodiversity are fundamentally interlinked. All human rights ultimately depend upon a healthy biosphere. ^{3  4} Healthy ecosystems, which depend on healthy biodiversity to function, provide people with essential drinking water, clean air to breathe and food to eat. Every aspect of life and human health, as well as many non-material aspects of quality of life, are reliant upon these contributions that nature provides to people’. ⁵ There are several human rights mechanisms and instruments that highlight and address the human rights relevance of biodiversity. For example, the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly recognize the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, including the need to protect the ecosystems and biodiversity that underpin these rights. ^{6  7  8}

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) ¹

OHCHR ²

UNGA (2020) ³

Geneva Environment Network ⁴

IPBES (2019) ⁵

UNGA (2021) ⁶

UNGA (2022) ⁷

UNGA (2024) ⁸