Time: 11:15 am - 12:30 pm

 

The 12th Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD)

 

Side-Event: Upholding the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable ocean, above and below water, to accelerate ocean-based climate action

Location: United Nations Conference Center in Bangkok and Hybrid

Date/Time: Wednesday 26 February 2025, 11:15-12:30 MR-H

Co-organizers: ESCAP, UN Human Rights (OHCHR), One Ocean Hub and India Water Foundation

Registration: To attend the side events in-person, all  participants must register on Indico as soon as possible: https://indico.un.org/event/1014374/ . Kindly note that access to side events does not guarantee access to APFSD plenary sessions

 

Background:

Humans depend on the ocean for food, health, livelihoods, security, cultural continuity, and a good standard of life. Yet, a myriad of ocean issues - including pollution, plastics, climate change, overfishing, industrialization, ecosystem degradation, and loss of biodiversity – are undermining human rights related to the ocean environment. The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution 76/300 in 2022 that formally recognizes that there is a universal human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Yet there is evidence that human rights impacts associated with the degradation of the marine environment are accelerating.

Ocean-based action to combat climate change is now emerging as an important focus for cooperation, as the ocean is absorbing the impacts of climate change, but also a key ecosystem for mitigation. Against this backdrop, this side event will explore the current trends and situation related to human rights and the ocean in Asia-Pacific. It will also highlight how the human rights-based approach to protecting and restoring marine biodiversity, sustainably managing fisheries, curtailing marine pollution, and mitigating climate change, can ensure that no-one is left behind in ocean governance, and that transformative changes to protect the ocean are effective and equitable, drawing on diverse life experiences, worldviews, values and traditional knowledge systems, while accelerating actions to address climate change, though ocean-based climate action.                

 

Program:

Time (75 mins)Segment
5 minsIntroduction and welcome remarks
5 minsScene Setting
Elisa Morgera, UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change and Human Rights
45 mins

Panel discussion:

Scope/Guiding questions:

  1. What are the major human rights and environmental risks faced by rights holders in the context of ocean governance and marine degradation in Asia-Pacific?
  2. How can international human rights standards and frameworks, such as the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, be effectively implemented to safeguard human rights dependent on a healthy marine environment? What are the drivers for, and obstacles to, effecting positive change in the implementation of these standards? How can progress in implementation be meaningfully measured?
  3. In what ways can multi-stakeholder approaches be strengthened to ensure a rights-based approach to protection of the Marineenvironment? What good practices can be found in the actions of states, businesses, and other actors?
  4. How can member States accelerate ocean-based climate action through enhanced access to information, public participation, and access to justice on ocean-related matters?
15 minsQ and A, commentary, recommendations, and takeaway messages
5 minsClosing remarks