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The UN Recognition of the Universal Right to a Healthy Environment
November 17, 2022 @ 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Free
The Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance (SCELG) and the Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law (CSHRL) are hosting a joint seminar on the United Nations’ recognition of the universal right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.
Our first speaker is Mr Marc Limon. Marc is an experienced diplomat and the Executive Director of the Universal Rights Group (URG), a think tank focused on international human rights policy with offices in Geneva, New York, and Bogota. Marc’s presentation will focus on political efforts over more than a decade to secure UN recognition of a new universal human right: the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. Through the efforts of a small group of States, two Special Rapporteurs, and civil society, the proponents of this new right were able to move the UN Human Rights Council from almost blanket opposition to this new right, to widespread support. The right is expected to have major positive implications for human wellbeing and for the environment and climate.
Our second speaker is Dr Nina Reiners. A political scientist, Nina is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Berlin/Potsdam research group ‘International Rule of Law’, as well as a Research Associate at the Global Governance Centre of the Graduate Institute Geneva. Nina will reflect on Marc’s presentation against the background of her book, Transnational Lawmaking Coalitions for Human Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2022). The book, which was given the 2022 award for best book on the UN system by the Academic Council on the UN System (ACUNS), dives beneath the surface of formal access, procedures, and actors of the UN human rights treaty bodies to reveal how members and external collaborators play a key role in the development of human rights.
More information about Marc’s work can be found here: https://www.universal-rights.org/who-we-are/urg-secretariat/marc-limon-uk-executive-director-2/. More information about Nina’s work can be found here: https://www.ninareiners.com/.
Following Marc and Nina’s presentations, there will be an opportunity for questions and discussion.
The event will take place in a hybrid format. All are welcome but registration is essential. When reserving your place, please indicate whether you will be attending in person or online. The login details will be emailed to you on the morning of the seminar.