The UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, Astrid Puentes Riaño, urged world leaders on Tuesday to incorporate human rights into ocean governance ahead of the third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3).

In her statement, Riaño emphasized that human rights and ocean governance are interconnected issues that cannot be separated, as the impact of human activities on oceans ultimately affects human beings. She stated that the political declaration to result from the UNOC3, known as the Nice Ocean Plan Action (NOPA), must adopt both a human rights-based and ecosystem-based approach to determine stakeholders’ commitments to protect and preserve the ocean. She also encouraged participants at UNOC3 to incorporate the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment as a human right into the declaration, in accordance with the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution adopted on April 3.

Riaño additionally highlighted that the commitments of the NOPA must be based on human rights and aimed at promoting ocean and marine conservation. To achieve this goal, States, businesses, and other stakeholders need to align their policies with efforts to end harmful extractive practices affecting marine ecosystems. Additionally, she stressed the importance of implementing the precautionary principle, which requires States to take adequate measures to prevent environmental risks, even in the absence of complete scientific certainty, especially concerning activities like deep-seabed mining.

Regarding businesses’ obligations, Riaño pointed out that the commitment to uphold human rights and contribute to ocean preservation requires companies to conduct human rights and environmental due diligence, as well as assess the impact of their activities on the environment. She also noted that incorporating human rights into ocean governance necessitates ensuring access to information and justice for all people, including indigenous peoples, local communities, and NGOs. Riaño concluded by stating: “Ocean issues are human rights issues, yet this connection is all too often overlooked in practice”, and called for an urgent shift in the way these issues are addressed.

Marine pollution, primarily caused by human activity, poses a threat not only to the environment and biodiversity but also to the human rights to life, health, food, culture, and a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. Importantly, the rights of indigenous peoples, small-scale fishers, and coastal communities are disproportionately endangered, as their survival, livelihoods, and cultural identities depend on marine ecosystems.

As a result, a specific regulatory framework was needed to govern human activities in the oceans, which is provided by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This convention defines marine pollution in Article 1 and dedicates an entire section to the obligations of States to preserve the marine environment. In another effort to mitigate ocean pollution caused by plastic debris, the UN has initiated negotiations to adopt a global treaty that addresses the entire lifecycle of plastic, from production to waste reduction. The degradation of oceans and marine ecosystems has also prompted calls from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to curb greenhouse gas emissions.