Human rights and the environment

We thank the Chair of this Permanent Council for convening this meeting. We likewise wish to thank the panelists who join us today for their valuable contributions, of which we have taken due note.

Madam Chair,

The consequences of climate change are ever more evident; we are witnesses to the severity of droughts, high temperatures, forest fires, the gradual rise in sea level, floods, the melting of glaciers, ever more intense storms and the loss of biodiversity. Climate change and environmental degradation are a threat to our planet. There is no national solution to all of this. It will be possible only through coordinated effort and the shaping of joint actions through multilateralism.

We States are called upon to promote compliance with the human rights obligations related to the enjoyment of a safe, clean and healthy environment.

For that reason, for the Dominican Republic the question of human rights linked to the environment is among our highest priorities, and we are convinced that there is no greater threat to humanity than climate change.

In the Dominican Republic, only a few weeks ago, we hosted the Eleventh Ibero-American Conference of Ministers of Environment and Climate Change, at which the Declaration of the Eleventh Ibero-American Conference of Ministers of Environment was adopted.

Among the proposals we wish to highlight, which were presented at COP26, is this: climate financing in the shortest possible time, so that the most vulnerable countries of the region can develop effective policies against global warming.

The Dominican Republic welcomes the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the resolution of July 28, 2022, which declares access to a clean and healthy environment a universal human right and also recognizes that the impact of climate change, the unsustainable management and use of natural resources, the pollution of air, land and water, the unsound management of chemicals and waste, and the resulting loss of biodiversity interfere with the enjoyment of this right, and that environmental damage has negative implications, both direct and indirect, for the effective enjoyment of all human rights.

This resolution is adopted at a time when the planet faces great challenges, and it is an important tool for confronting projects that are ecologically destructive.

Finally, we reaffirm our commitment to the protection of the environment, to the conservation, sustainable use and restoration of biodiversity, to combating soil degradation and to the fight against the effects of climate change, and we are convinced that we can do it with the support of all and among us all.

Thank you very much.