This year the United Nations General Assembly agreed that all people have the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. The new universal human right has been confirmed, giving activists across the world new tools in their fight against the devastating effects of climate change and biodiversity loss.
It comes at the same time as the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) and at the start of a year-long campaign to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a milestone in human history. It has laid the groundwork for the modern human rights framework that we cherish today based on more than 70 rights treaties. The central focus of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is of dignity and equality of rights for all people, and this is critical to UNDP’s mandate to support sustainable human development and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The entire vision of the declaration is undermined by the destruction of nature. People cannot fully exercise their rights without a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
This new right has given more and better tools to all those fighting the greatest threat to human rights of our time.
Climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution are attacking decades of progress and intensifying conflicts and structural inequalities. Add in the effects of COVID-19 and more than 150 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty by 2030, according to World Bank estimates. Developing countries will bear up to 80 percent of the cost of climate change.
A human rights-based approach will help reduce inequalities, reach those furthest behind and enable all people to realize their right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. It means that governments need to address the unequal power structures that prevent accountability and stand in the way of all people claiming their rights.
"What is different now is that we have a document from the United Nations where all states are responsible."
- Sara Omi, President of the Coordinator of Territorial Women Leaders of Mesoamerica and Embera Lead Advisor to the Embera Women Craftswomen’s Association, Panama
“It will ensure the legitimacy of our fight. It is a milestone in terms of accountability for climate change.”
- Yero Sarr, Student and Co-founder of the Fridays For Future movement in Senegal
Countries where environmental protection is enshrined in constitutions have stronger environmental laws, and countries with stronger environmental laws have more quickly reduced their ecological footprints and levels of pollution. Argentina, Costa Rica and the Philippines are examples where constitutional environmental rights have led to stronger protection of the environment through courts.
To support countries in using a human rights-based approach for environmental action, UNDP launched an Environmental Justice Strategy.
People must be at the centre of the response to environmental crises. In Viet Nam, UNDP supports an approach that puts people’s needs at the heart of the decisions the country makes, especially vulnerable groups.
UNDP works with women, Indigenous communities, young people and people with disabilities through the Small Grants Programme, Innovation Small Grant Aggregator Platform and Equator Initiative. The latter provides opportunities for Indigenous peoples, who account for 15 percent of the world’s poorest, despite being only 4 percent of its population.
UNDP also works with national human rights institutions that play a critical role on the forefront of efforts to highlight the human rights dimensions and impacts of the climate crisis in monitoring, reporting and advising on rights-based climate action.
“I will continue educating communities, planting trees, and also hold our policy-makers accountable and remind them to deliver on the climate promises."
- Fatou Jeng, Founder and Director of the youth-led non-profit Clean Earth Gambia
UNDP’s recent Aiming Higher guidance is for young people to meaningfully engage in climate action. In Asia-Pacific, with the support of UNDP's Global Programme on Rule of Law and Human Rights, a Youth Advisory Group on Environmental and Climate Justice, anchored in Youth Empowerment in Climate Action Platform (YECAP) and in partnership with OHCHR and UNEP, brings together dedicated youth working to strengthen environmental rule of law in the region.
When businesses respect human rights they can be a force for good.
Based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, UNDP works to ensure businesses carry out environmental and human rights due diligence in their supply chains.
In partnership with the European Union, the UNDP Business and Human Rights Asia team launched a talk show, Asia in Focus, to spotlight the interconnection between business, human rights and environment.
In many countries, the mining industry is both a threat to the environment and vital to economies. UNDP’s Environmental Governance Programme, a joint initiative with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, serves to prevent negative impacts from mining. In 2021, laws, policies, regulations and guidance were improved in Colombia, Liberia, Namibia and Zambia.
The bottom line is simple. The goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change, the global biodiversity framework and the 2030 Agenda can only be achieved if the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, as well as other human rights, are fully protected.
This Human Rights Day, UNDP celebrates the new universal right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and the universality of all rights. To mark the 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we rededicate our mission and work to ensure a human rights-based approach to development – and a world where people enjoy equality and justice, living and working in balance with nature.
© 2026 United Nations Development Programme
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