Looking for ways to realise human rights and secure nature at the same time

The year 2020 was deemed the super year for biodiversity; not least because the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) would adopt a new strategy to move towards the vision of a world living in harmony with nature by 2050.

But with the Covid-19 pandemic, the CBD process for a new post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework – along with so many other human interactions – got stalled. One of the latest post-2020-related events that took place in real life, in February 2020, was the Thematic workshop on “Human Rights as enabling condition in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework” in Chiang Mai, co-convened by SwedBio and partners. It elaborated suggestions for how a human rights-based approach could enrich and improve all the targets of the new framework, contributing to the necessary transformational change for bending the curve of biodiversity loss.

Now, a year after the workshop in Chiang Mai, a group of participants from the workshop, have complied a discussion paper (translated to Spanish here) with updated proposals. Based on the progress in the post-2020 discussions, it brings together human rights-related language proposed in submissions by a broad range of grassroots and civil society organisations, as well as from texts and resolutions by international bodies and agencies. The compilation is intended to support the work of the organisations, constituencies and Parties to integrate a human rights-based approach across the Global Biodiversity Framework.

Key messages

Key messages from the workshop on Human Rights in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, and the updated discussion paper:

● Human rights and a healthy planet are mutually dependent. To have a safe, clean and healthy environment, we have to respect, protect and fulfil human rights. To realise our human rights, we must heal, protect and sustainably live on our planet.

● Across human cultures – particularly of Indigenous peoples and local communities – are diverse worldviews, values, ethics and spiritual beliefs that embody and guide our reciprocal relationships with the rest of the planet.

● Land tenure security and recognition of tenure rights is a key plank in addressing biodiversity loss and supporting the systems of governance and knowledge that enable biodiversity management and protection.

● Biological diversity must be understood in relation to the cultural diversity that sustains and maintains it.

The SwedBio team invites you to reflect upon the proposals and learn more about how to enable a human rights-based approach at the heart of the efforts to bend the curve of biodiversity loss.

The discussion paper is a living document, and was prepared by a group of participants from the Thematic workshop on Human Rights in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, representing Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) CBD Alliance, Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN), Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (FARN), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, ICCA Consortium, Natural Justice, Tebtebba Foundation, WWF Indonesia, the CBD Women’s Caucus, Women4Biodiversity and SwedBio at Stockholm Resilience Centre.

Interested in reading further?

• For more information on the Thematic Workshop on Human Rights as enabling condition in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, held in Chiang Mai in February 2020, do take a look at the SwedBio webpage here.
• You can also read the report from the Workshop on the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) webpage here.

• The UN Human Rights Council (OHCHR) recently published “Key messages on human rights and biodiversity”, brought attention to the loss of biodiversity caused by human activities and the need for transformative change to protect and restore biodiversity, and to prevent future pandemics. You can consult this report here.

• Please also take a look at the SwedBio Handbook for weaving human rights, SDGs, and the post-2020 global biodiversity framework here.