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Info Service on UN Sustainable Development (Aug21/11) Human rights must be at heart of UN plan to save planet The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Environment has called for the Convention on Biological Diversity’s global biodiversity framework (GBF) that is meant to address the Conventions’s implementation in the period post-2020, to be amended to put human rights at its centre in order to ensure the future of life on our planet. The First Draft of the post-2020 GBF was recently made available, and virtual negotiations on it are currently underway. According to the UN Special Rapporteur, “States must improve the draft Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework by guaranteeing that rights-based approaches are obligatory in all actions to conserve, restore, and share the benefits of biodiversity, including conservation financing.” He also cautioned against “fortress conservation” approaches aimed at restoring “pristine wilderness” free from human inhabitants, saying this approach has had devastating human rights impacts on communities living in targeted areas, including indigenous peoples and other rural dwellers. The rapid expansion of protected areas to cover 30 percent of Earth’s lands and waters is essential to conserving biodiversity, he said, but must not be achieved at the expense of further human rights violations against indigenous peoples and other rural people. The UN Special Rapporteur has developed a policy brief, ‘Human rights-based approaches to conserving biodiversity: equitable, effective and imperative’, calling for a more inclusive, just and sustainable approach to safeguarding and restoring biodiversity, and outlining the human rights costs and limited efficacy of exclusionary conservation. We are happy to share with you the Press Release (Item 1), as well an excerpt from the Policy Brief on ‘Recommendations Specific to the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework’ (Item 2). The
full policy brief is available at The
executive summary is available at With
best wishes, Item 1 Human rights must be at heart of UN plan to save planet – expert GENEVA (19 August 2021) – The UN’s draft plan to preserve and protect nature must be amended to put human rights at its centre if we are to ensure the future of life on our planet, David Boyd, UN special rapporteur on human rights and environment, said today. “Leaving human rights on the periphery is simply not an option, because rights-based conservation is the most effective, efficient, and equitable path forward to safeguarding the planet,” he said. “I urge Member States to put human rights at the heart of the new Global Biodiversity Framework.” Boyd made the call ahead of an October conference in Kunming, China, where representatives of 190 governments will finalise the UN Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, addressing threats to biodiversity, human well-being and the future of life on Earth. “States must depart from a ‘conservation as usual’ approach in order to save biodiversity and ensure the fulfilment of human rights for all,” said Boyd. “A more inclusive, just and sustainable approach to safeguarding and restoring biodiversity is an obligation, not an option.” The Kunming biodiversity summit will work on the draft framework released in July by the Secretariat of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. It aims to establish a “world living in harmony with nature” by 2050, in part by protecting at least 30 percent of the planet and placing at least 20 percent under restoration by 2030. “This new framework is of vital importance because accelerated efforts to expand protected areas have unfortunately proven insufficient to stop or even slow the tidal wave of environmental destruction sweeping the planet,” said Boyd. The rapid expansion of protected areas to cover 30 percent of Earth’s lands and waters is essential to conserving biodiversity, Boyd said, but must not be achieved at the expense of further human rights violations against indigenous peoples and other rural people. He said special attention must be paid to the rights of indigenous peoples, people of African descendant, local communities, peasants, rural women and rural youth, none of whom are adequately prioritized in the current draft despite recent improvements. These individuals and groups “must be acknowledged as key partners in protecting and restoring nature,” Boyd said. “Their human, land and tenure rights, knowledge, and conservation contributions must be recognized, respected, and supported.” He cautioned against “fortress conservation” approaches aimed at restoring “pristine wilderness” free from human inhabitants, saying this approach has had devastating human rights impacts on communities living in targeted areas, including indigenous peoples and other rural dwellers. The current draft Framework fails to mention human rights, “overlooking the fundamental fact that all human rights ultimately depend on a healthy biosphere” Boyd said. “States must improve the draft Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework by guaranteeing that rights-based approaches are obligatory in all actions to conserve, restore, and share the benefits of biodiversity, including conservation financing. “It is also imperative that the Framework acknowledges that everyone, everywhere, has the right to live in a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, a right which includes healthy ecosystems and biodiversity,” he said. Expanding on his report to the General Assembly in October 2020, “Human Rights Depend on a Healthy Biosphere”, Boyd has now developed a policy brief calling for a more inclusive, just and sustainable approach to safeguarding and restoring biodiversity, and outlining the human rights costs and limited efficacy of exclusionary conservation. An executive summary is also available. ENDS David R. Boyd (Canada) was appointed Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment starting 1 August 2018. He is an associate professor of law, policy, and sustainability at the University of British Columbia. Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity. For more information and media requests please contact Viktoria Aberg (+41 22 917 9790, vaberg@ohchr.org). For media enquiries regarding other UN independent experts, please contact Renato de Souza (+41 22 928 9855 / rrosariodesouza@ohchr.org) or Jeremy Laurence (+ 41 22 917 7578 / jlaurence@ohchr.org). Follow news related to the UN’s independent human rights experts on Twitter@UN_SPExperts. Concerned
about the world we live in? Item 2 A. Recommendations specific to the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework should: (1) Explicitly acknowledge everyone’s right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, which includes healthy biodiversity and ecosystems, and include measurable targets towards the recognition and implementation of this right (e.g., inclusion in constitutions, legislation, and National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans). (2) Prioritize the empowerment and substantive participation of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants, local communities, peasants, rural women, and rural youth, along with the legal recognition and implementation of their human, land and tenure rights, as the central strategy driving the rights- based Framework. (3) Emphasize rights-based actions that equitably partner with and support the conservation leadership of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants, local communities, peasants, rural women, and rural youth, build their capacity, rely on their traditional knowledge and nature management practices, and achieve multiple human rights and sustainable development benefits (e.g., biodiversity conservation initiatives that reduce poverty, promote gender equality, improve food security, and address climate change). (4) Be revised so that the 2050 Vision statement reads: “The vision of the framework is a world of living in harmony with nature where: By 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining nature’s contributions to people and the interdependent biological and cultural diversity that enable them, sustaining a healthy planet and ensuring recognition and respect for human, land, and tenure rights of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants, local communities, peasants, rural women, rural youth and other rural rights holders, thereby delivering ecosystem benefits essential for all people and future generations.” (5) Be revised so that the 2030 Mission statement reads: “To take urgent action across society and in partnership with Indigenous Peoples and other rural rights holders—including local communities, Afro-descendants, peasants, rural women, and rural youth—to design and implement rights-based approaches that conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and ensure the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of biological resources, thereby putting biodiversity on a path to recovery by 2030 for the mutual benefit of the planet, all people, and all future generations.” (6) Include an additional 2030 Goal whereby all Indigenous Peoples’, Afro- descendants’, and local communities’ rights to the community lands, waters, carbon, sub-surface resources, and territories they traditionally own and/or govern are legally recognized, respected and implemented, with particular attention to the rights of Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and local community women. (7) Include a subsection within the 2030 Action Targets dedicated to support for Indigenous Peoples’ and other marginalized rural groups’ human, land, and tenure rights—including all rights enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (2018), the International Labour Organization Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No. 169 (1989), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1981), and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). The sub-section should include: a) Two 2030 Action Targets that replace the text of Target 21 in the current draft, and that read: i. “By 2030, ensure Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-descendants’, local communities’, and peasants’ (including rural women and rural youth within these groups) full consultation and equitable and effective participation—including rights of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC)—in all decision-making related to biodiversity. Support their decision-making capacity, and ensure that their participation, priorities, traditional knowledge, innovations, and nature stewardship practices guide conservation decision-making at all levels; ii. By 2030, ensure the legal recognition and security of Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-descendants’, local communities’, and peasants’ tenure rights over all lands, waters, and other natural resources that they customarily or otherwise own, manage, or use, with particular attention to the tenure rights of women and youth within these groups.” b) “Measurable 2030 Action Targets specific to the traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants, local communities, peasants, rural women, and rural youth, and to their receipt of fair and equitable conservation benefits (as reflected in current Targets 9, 13, and 20).”). (8) Require human rights-based, gender-sensitive conservation approaches to be incorporated within the development, content, and implementation of all National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) and other planning and monitoring mechanisms. Relatedly, require NBSAPs and other planning and monitoring mechanisms to: a) Guarantee all people’s access to information, participation in decision- making, and access to justice in biodiversity conservation matters; b) Include gender and youth inclusion strategies; c) Require States to regularly monitor adherence to human rights standards and respect for the human, land, and tenure rights of Indigenous Peoples and other rural rights holders in all conservation measures. (9) Increase the 2030 Action Target to assist low-income states so that at least $100 billion in annual grants from high-income states is devoted to assist low-income states in conserving, protecting, restoring and ensuring the sustainable use of nature (matching international climate finance commitments). (10) Include a 2030 Action target for zero murders of environmental human rights defenders working on biodiversity and conservation-related issues, highlighting the duty of all conservation actors to protect them, apply a zero- tolerance approach to their abuse, and take effective actions to ensure their freedom from harassment, intimidation, violence, criminalization and other forms of abuse.
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