The Environment, a Changing Climate, and Planetary Health

2020 ◽  
pp. 417-438
Author(s):  
Alexandra L. Phelan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Dynamic Balance ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Planetary Health ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
The Right

This chapter addresses the dynamic balance between human health and the environment, with a focus on the global health and human rights threat of climate change. International legal efforts to mitigate environmental damage and climate change—from the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the 2015 Paris Agreement—have been limited in addressing the threats posed to global health. Human rights will be necessary to examine efforts to mitigate and respond to these cataclysmic threats, including rising temperatures and extreme weather events, air pollution, infectious diseases, food, water and sanitation, and mental health. Facing this unprecedented threat, advocates can draw from past advances, including the use of litigation to protect human rights affected by the environment, the realization of the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress, and the implementation of human rights as a foundation of planetary health.

s.Four New Challenges, 19 The Environment, a Changing Climate, and Planetary Health

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phelan Alexandra L
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Dynamic Balance ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Planetary Health ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
The Right

This chapter addresses the dynamic balance between human health and the environment, with a focus on the global health and human rights threat of climate change. International legal efforts to mitigate environmental damage and climate change—from the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the 2015 Paris Agreement—have been limited in addressing the threats posed to global health. Human rights will be necessary to examine efforts to mitigate and respond to these cataclysmic threats, including rising temperatures and extreme weather events, air pollution, infectious diseases, food, water and sanitation, and mental health. Facing this unprecedented threat, advocates can draw from past advances, including the use of litigation to protect human rights affected by the environment, the realization of the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress, and the implementation of human rights as a foundation of planetary health.

Climate Change and Global Health

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 219-229
Author(s):  
Stefania Negri
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
International Courts ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
The Right

Abstract Climate change is considered potentially the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century due to its direct and indirect adverse impacts on human health and its environmental determinants. Synergies between international regimes regulating climate change and human rights protection can provide the appropriate legal tools to hold States responsible for their contribution to climate change, notably in terms of failure to adopt effective and appropriate measures of mitigation and adaptation capable of preventing climate-induced health risks. In this respect, recent trends in international practice suggest that the right to health argument has the potential to play a pivotal role in climate litigation before international courts and human rights bodies, which are increasingly called to adjudge complaints filed by youth petitioners fighting for global climate change action.

The Origins of Human Rights in Global Health

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence O. Gostin ◽  
Benjamin Mason Meier
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Global Health ◽  
International Law ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Right To Health Care ◽  
Global Standards ◽  
The Right

This chapter introduces the foundational importance of human rights for global health, providing a theoretical basis for the edited volume by laying out the role of human rights under international law as a normative basis for public health. By addressing public health harms as human rights violations, international law has offered global standards by which to frame government responsibilities and evaluate health practices, providing legal accountability in global health policy. The authors trace the historical foundations for understanding the development of human rights and the role of human rights in protecting and promoting health since the end of World War II and the birth of the United Nations. Examining the development of human rights under international law, the authors introduce the right to health as an encompassing right to health care and underlying determinants of health, exploring this right alongside other “health-related human rights.”

scholarly journals Legal and human rights-based approaches to healthy diets and sustainable food systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
D W Patterson ◽  
K Buse ◽  
R Magnusson ◽  
B C A Toebes
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Sustainable Food Systems ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Healthy Diets ◽  
Health And Development ◽  
The Right

Abstract Issue Malnutrition in all its forms poses daunting challenges to global health and development. The agriculture sector is a significant contributor to global warming. COVID-19 has pushed many people into poverty, including food poverty. A radical rethink of business models, food systems, civil society involvement, and national and international governance is required to address the interlinked crises of COVID-19, obesity, undernutrition, and climate change. International human rights law, institutions and mechanisms provide important opportunities for norm setting, advocacy and accountability. Yet these pathways are under-utilised by both governments and civil society. Description The global AIDS response demonstrated the power of a human rights-based approach. United Nations' HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Guidelines greatly influenced the global consensus for effective, evidence-based approaches. The Guidelines also informed resolutions of the UN General Assembly and its Human Rights Council, contributing to more affordable medicines, an unprecedented increase in people on treatment, less stigmatising health services, the empowerment of marginalised groups, and the institutionalisation of norms, including “no one left behind.” Human rights-based approaches have also been successfully utilised in tobacco control. Results In 2019, 180 experts from 38 countries published an open call on WHO and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to initiate an inclusive process to develop guidelines on human rights, healthy diets and sustainable food systems. Most signatories were from the health and development sectors, demonstrating the increasingly broad interest in using human rights mechanisms to address global health challenges. Lessons Opportunities exist to transform food systems and create healthier food environments and a healthier planet by clarifying existing international obligations to progressively realise the right to food and the right to health. Key messages Market forces, alone, are failing to deliver healthy diets and sustainable food systems. International legal frameworks and accountability mechanisms provide opportunities for engagement and action. Human rights guidelines can help mobilize multisectoral action, strengthen State and private sector accountability, and deepen community engagement in the urgent task of achieving Agenda 2030.

scholarly journals Freedom and Engineering for All

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (09) ◽  
pp. 32-37
Author(s):  
Jessica M. Wyndham
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Educational Program ◽  
American Association ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Professional Societies ◽  
Academic Instruction ◽  
Scientists And Engineers ◽  
The Right ◽  
Engineering Enterprise

This article discusses benefits and challenges in engaging engineers in connecting engineering and human rights. Engineers have a vital role to play in giving visibility to human rights, particularly in matters relevant to their field or discipline. Academic instruction in ethics is increasingly viewed as integral to a rigorous educational program in science or engineering. The Science and Human Rights Coalition of the American Association for the Advancement of Science is one network of professional societies that recognize a role for scientists and engineers in human rights. An important way in which engineers can protect and promote human rights is by ensuring that the products they develop benefit people in need. Engineers have human rights that need to be respected in order for the engineering enterprise to flourish and the benefits of engineering to be broadly enjoyed. Engineers have opportunities to contribute to human rights compliance when designing and implementing projects, and to contribute to the realization of the right to benefit from scientific progress and its applications.

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