Supporting the Global Biodiversity Agenda – We are part of the Solution

A United Nations system commitment for catalysing collective action for nature.

Panel discussion: From Commitments to Action – Accountability and Engagement for transformative system change to halt the loss of and restore biodiversity

Opening remarks by Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

25 May 2021

Distinguished colleagues and friends, I am glad to join you for the launch of these two important reports.

My Office was very pleased to contribute to both of them.

We just celebrated International Biodiversity Day, which commemorates the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity on 22 May 1992.

Now, nearly 30 years after the ambitious action States took in the early 1990’s to adopt the three Rio Conventions on biodiversity, climate change and desertification, we face a tipping point.

The environment is in crisis. Enjoyment of human rights, now and in the future, depends on how we act now.

Biodiversity loss is caused by human activity, and it has enormous implications for human rights and human well-being.

Furthermore, it isn’t occurring in a vacuum. The Secretary General has referred to "interlocked" planetary crises of biodiversity loss, pollution and climate change, and has called them a “suicidal war on nature”.

Its full impact looms ahead of us. But already, the human toll is terrible. Displacement, hunger, thirst, suffering, premature death, the spread of infectious diseases – these are all part of the cost that is already being borne, disproportionately by people who are already in disadvantageous situations.

That cost is growing.   But we can push back. Environmental degradation and its impacts are caused by humans, and we can prevent and address them.

Putting human rights at the core of environmental action is the solution.

The Secretary-General’s Call to Action for Human Rights summons us to enhance coordinated work across the entire UN system to achieve this objective –  by protecting environmental human rights defenders; advancing the human right to a healthy environment; and making environmental action more inclusive and participatory, among other key points.

These elements of a human rights based approach are reflected in the Environment Management Group’s Biodiversity Report and the UN Common Approach on Biodiversity and Nature-Based Solutions.

They constitute an excellent roadmap for the concrete action that we should take to stop biodiversity loss – reshaping our societies and our relationship to nature so that both people, and our planet, can flourish.

It falls to us, now, as UN bodies, to put these plans into action in our work, and in support of States and other stakeholders.

How do we do this? OHCHR and UNEP’s joint Key Messages on human rights and biodiversity provide an outline.

Participation, non-discrimination, and equality are critical.

Indigenous peoples, local communities, and others who are most affected by biodiversity loss, are often the best placed to stop it.

Women and girls will be empowered to adopt agricultural practices that foster biodiversity when their rights to equal access to land and livelihoods are upheld.

UN bodies can promote environmental policy-making that not only consults, but also elevates the voices and practices of those who have traditionally been marginalized.

We can support equitable and non-discriminatory land and water tenure and management practices, as well as agricultural policy.

And we can take steps to uphold justice and accountability.

Those who have contributed the least to biodiversity loss often suffer the worst impacts on their human rights. They need us to advocate for – and enable – biodiversity finance that is human rights-based, responsive to gender, and shaped by local needs – so that affected communities have the resources to repair damaged ecosystems.

We can and should promote measures based on the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which lead to real accountability for corporations and others who cause human rights harms through biodiversity loss.

It is urgent for all of us to contribute to reshaping humanity's relationship with nature, to enable realization of the human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment; support for sustainable development; and protection of the rights of future generations.

The two reports being launched today present a detailed, doable case for action we can take. We need to realize their ambition in the future work of the UN Environment Management Group.

And we need to support States and other stakeholders in bringing the same commitment and ambition to their development of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

Our future depends on it.

Thank you.