Skip to main content

The right to a healthy environment at the core of our engagement at the 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council

The 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council adopted two important initiatives in which Slovenia is participating. The key UN body responsible for human rights approved the renewal of the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues and confirmed that the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment represents a link between the environment and human rights.
Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Tanja Fajon addressing the high-level segment of the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council, Palais des Nations, 27 February 2023

Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Tanja Fajon addressing the high-level segment of the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council, Palais des Nations, 27 February 2023 | Author Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs

The Slovenian delegation led by Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Tanja Fajon actively participated in general debates, interactive dialogues and consultations on resolutions. Slovenia focused on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, as it has been striving, together with a group of countries, to raise awareness of this right and strengthen its full implementation. This commitment was confirmed by the ministers at the high-level event on the implementation of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment at the beginning of the session.

The session also featured a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment David Boyd, who visited Slovenia in March 2023. The Slovenian delegation thanked him for the visit and expressed Slovenia's full readiness to cooperate on the implementation of his recommendations. At the annual discussion on the rights of the child, a representative of the Children's Parliament of Slovenia spoke on behalf of Slovenia’s children. 

Representatives of the Slovenian delegation delivered national statements and spoke out against all forms of violence against children, including in the digital environment. They stressed the need to protect children in armed conflict, reaffirmed the important link between a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and human rights, and took a strong stance on the need to protect the rights of minorities. They also responded to the dire human rights situation in Afghanistan, Palestine and Ukraine.

The Council adopted timely resolutions in response to the human rights situation in Ukraine, Belarus, Syria, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Nicaragua, South Sudan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The governments of Georgia, Haiti and Libya asked the Council for technical cooperation in the field of human rights, which Slovenia supported.

The Quadrilateral Group (Austria, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Switzerland) called for the global abolition of the death penalty. The Trilateral Group (Austria, Croatia, Slovenia) addressed the importance of the protection of children's rights in the digital environment. Together with a group of countries, Slovenia called for a continuation of the debate on the international framework of protection of the rights of older persons and welcomed the Council's recognition that armed conflicts, in addition to other factors, seriously impede the right to food around the globe.