Call for Input: Environmental human rights defenders and the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment

Editor’s note:

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human right to a healthy environment has launched a call for inputs to inform a forthcoming thematic report on environmental human rights defenders, to be presented at the 64th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

This is an important opportunity for rural social movements, peasants, Indigenous Peoples, small-scale fishers, among other rural peoples, to share evidence and experiences on the challenges faced by environmental human rights defenders around the world. The report will examine the growing risks, violence, and repression affecting those who defend the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, while also identifying effective measures to strengthen their protection. Contributions from UNDROP rights holders and their representative organisations are essential to ensure that the report reflects the realities on the ground and provides concrete recommendations to States and other actors.

We encourage organisations representing UNDROP rights holders to submit their contributions (up to 2,500 words or 5 pages) by 21 August 2026. For more information, please read the full call below.

Issued by: Special Rapporteur on the human right to a healthy environment

Deadline: 21 August 2026

Purpose: Inform the preparation of my thematic report to the 64th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Background

Environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs) play a critical role in protecting the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and all other human rights. Their work contributes directly to protecting ecosystems and biodiversity, advancing a safe climate, improving air quality, protecting water and watersheds, promoting healthy and sustainable produced food, and achieving non-toxic environments. Environmental human rights defenders’ work is fundamental for the advancement of the procedural elements of the right to a healthy environment; access to information, public participation, and access to justice. These are recognised human rights and fundamental pillars of the rule of law, democratic governance and peaceful societies.

The role of EHRDs is especially vital today, as humanity faces the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and toxic pollution, aggravated by systemic inequalities and discrimination. Around the world, EHRDs are actively identifying and implementing alternative viable solutions to the triple planetary crises, with solutions that span from protecting fragile ecosystems on land and in the ocean- to advancing renewable and sustainable energy. This helps in achieving accountability while supporting States to fulfill their obligations. Whilst there has been an increased recognition of the crucial role of EHRDs by institutions, overall, the risks, violence and repression these defenders keep facing are increasing in all regions. These risks are reflected by the closing of civic spaces, stigmatization, harassment, surveillance, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), criminalization, threats, attacks, and even assassinations and forced disappearances.

People and groups in marginalized situations, including Indigenous Peoples, peasants, coastal and fisher peoples, people of African descent, women and girls, children and youth, older persons, LGTBQ+ and people living in highly polluted areas are especially in vulnerable situations. EHRDs on the ground face higher risks, aggravated by conflict, war, and illegal economies, while increased risks for journalists, lawyers, and even scientists working for a healthy environment, have also been documented .

To further understand the situation that EHRDs are facing around the world, and to find effective measures for their protection is urgent and important per se but also for solving the triple planetary crises. Understanding the situation requires considering differentiated impacts that EHRDs are facing by region, sector, gender, age, among others, towards the protection of their rights, and for effectively implementing the right to a healthy environment.

Objectives

In this report, the Special Rapporteur examines the situation of environmental human rights defenders, working in the context of the triple planetary crises, focusing on how violations against them also affect the realization of the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. The report will outline the obligations of States and non-State actors, under international law and human rights law, to protect EHRDs, as well as States’ duty to protect the environment and the climate system, preventing further harms. In doing so, the Special Rapporteur aims to contribute to the understanding of the situation of EHRDs from an individual and a collective perspective, acknowledging that while many of EHRDs are leading and implementing individual actions, these are commonly part of broader community or collective efforts.

The Special Rapporteur will provide concrete recommendations to States and other stakeholders to ensure the protection of environmental human rights defenders and the effective implementation of the right to a healthy environment, including in relation to collective measures from an intersectional approach.

Key questions and types of input/comments sought

Key Information and Contributions for the Report

The Special Rapporteur invites submissions from States, civil society, Indigenous Peoples, people of African descent, peasants, children and youth, small scale fisheries, academics, businesses and others on the following:

1. Regarding the situation of Environmental Human Rights Defenders

Please contribute with information describing:

• Specific risks faced by environmental human rights defenders, including Indigenous Peoples, women and girls, children and youth, peasants, coastal communities, rural communities, journalists, lawyers, scientists, LGTBQ+, and people living in highly polluted areas, among others. Please describe impacts of these risks and attacks on their communities, collectives, work, and environmental protection outcomes, as well as specific considerations applicable to regions or sectors that might be relevant.
• The use of legal measures to restrict, limit or obstacle the work of EHRDs, including impacting the civic space, use of SLAPPs, the use of criminal law, or other mechanisms to create a ‘chilling effect’.
• Kinds of impacts, including psychosocial impacts of threats, violence, and repression on environmental human rights defenders. Please detail the ways in which these attacks may generate or exacerbate internal conflicts within communities, organizations, and social movements.
• Factors that might be contributing to the worsening situation of environmental human rights defenders.

2. Policies, legislation and other existing measures of State and non-State actors for the protection of EHRDs

Please contribute with information related with :

• Policies, regulations and practices adopted by States, businesses and/or financial institutions to identify, mitigate, mitigate, prevent, prosecute and remedy for risks and impacts on EHRDs, including in the context of high-risk sectors such as extractive industries, agribusiness, energy, and infrastructure, as well as information on barriers to accountability and access to justice. Please mention whether mechanisms consider individual and collective protection and include examples of the implementation of these;
• Examples of actions taken by non-State actors to ensure meaningful engagement with affected or potentially affected EHRDs as individuals, collectives and communities, including Indigenous Peoples and other groups in vulnerable situations, and measures to avoid contributing to threats, reprisals, or conflicts. Include information of how these actions have succeeded or failed, and redress processes, established by non-State actors that are relevant to the protection of EHRDs, including their accessibility, effectiveness, implementation in practice.
• Grievance mechanisms, and redress processes, established by non-State actors that are relevant to the protection of EHRDs, including their accessibility, effectiveness and implementation in practice.

3. Other effective measures for protecting Environmental Human Rights Defenders

Please provide information regarding:

• Concrete examples of effective measures beyond legal frameworks or policies, to ensure a safe and enabling environment for environmental human rights defenders, including measures for individual, collective and/or communities’ protection.
• Explanation if these measures consider an intersectional approach and how it is implemented, as well as the process to conceive, plan and implement such measures.
• Examples of structural measures for the effective protection of EHRDs ensuring a safe and enabling environment for the implementation of their work.

How inputs will be used?

We appreciate your efforts to submit your valuable inputs for this report, and your collaboration and support for the implementation of this mandate. If there is information that you have previously sent to other special procedures or human rights mechanisms that may be relevant, we urge you to flag these to avoid duplication and more effectively coordinate. 

Please email your responses in Word format (subject: Planning and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment to [email protected]. Unless specifically requested otherwise and provided they are in line with UN norms and standards, submissions may be posted on the Special Rapporteur’s homepage at the OHCHR website and may be referenced in the reports. In view of consent and privacy issues, contributions containing names of alleged victims will be considered but not published online.

For additional information on the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the human right to a healthy environment | OHCHR.