I am are writing to you on behalf of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights and the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme to
invite you to contribute to and participate in a joint OHCHR-UNEP Seminar on
Human Rights and the Environment. The Seminar will take place in Geneva on
Wednesday 16 January 2002 in room XXI at the Palais des Nations.
This initiative, undertaken pursuant to a specific request from Commission
on Human Rights (CHR), seeks to bring together experts in the human rights and
in the environment communities to review the implementation of Agenda 21 with
regard to the promotion and protection of human rights. The initiative is being
guided by a group of 25 experts from the human rights, environment and related
fields. The experts will present to the Seminar a draft set of key
recommendations which will form the basis for discussion. The results of the
Seminar will in turn be reported to the CHR and to the New York PrepComm for the
World Summit on Sustainable Development.
The initiative will focus on the significant progress in bringing together
human rights and environmental issues achieved since the Rio summit, both at the
international and national levels. This includes the adoption of new
multilateral texts (such as the Aarhus Convention), new provisions in national
constitutions, domestic and regional case-law, and trends in review and
decision-making mechanisms in international agencies. The focus is thus to
highlight concrete examples of progress in integrating human rights and
environmental issues and to draw from these examples clear directions for future
work. The agenda for the Seminar is set out below.
We would appreciate any written submission on these issues that your
organisation would be able to make before the Seminar. By reason of the short
amount of time in which the Seminar's report needs to be finalised, I would ask
that your submissions follow a common format:
· a focus on succinct recommendations for future action in this
field at the international level;
· a maximum of ten pages;
· numbered paragraphs;
· delivered in electronic format and preferably emailed to
jheenan.hchr@unog.ch.
In this way we will be able to distribute and integrate your submissions easily.
For security reasons, it is important that you confirm your availability
to attend the Seminar to Mr James Heenan, OHCHR-Palais des Nations, 8-14 Av. de
la Paix, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, tel: (41 22) 917 9179, fax: (41 22) 917 90
10, email: jheenan.hchr@unog.ch. Unfortunately neither agency is in a position
to cover the travel or accommodation expenses of participants.
On behalf of Mrs Robinson and Mr Töpfer, I hope you are able to accept
this invitation to be involved in this important initiative of our agencies.
Sincerely
Stefanie Grant
Chief, RRDB