UN Human Rights Institutions and the Environment

"This latest work of Sumudu Atapattu is a much-needed contribution to the field of study of climate change and human rights.The devastating impacts of climate change are worsening as actors around the world engage to safeguard human life and protect the rights of all, including those most vulnerable and exposed.Professor Atapattu helps the academic as well as the policy and activist communities better understand how a human rights framing helps victims of environmental degradation. In whatever environmental arena one finds oneself, this book is a required tool and an important asset."

Ambassador Dessima Williams, Formerly, Special Advisor on Sustainable Development Goals and Director, Office of the President of the UN General Assembly, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Grenada to the UN & Chair, Alliance of Small Island Developing States

"UN Human rights institutions are increasingly addressing the human rights impact of environmental degradation including climate change and unsustainable development, despite their mandates’ silence on these issues.In this volume, Sumudu Atapattu lends her expertise to this emerging field and provides a comprehensive overview of how these human rights bodies have addressed these interlinkages. This volume fills a gap in the scholarly literature and should be of interest to scholars, students, activists, government officials, think tanks, and practicing lawyers."

Professor Carmen G. Gonzalez and Morris I. Leibman, Professor of Law, Loyola University Chicago School of Law

"This brilliant survey by Sri Lankan international lawyer Sumudu Atapattu comes at a propitious moment -- viz., the adoption by the UN General Assembly of Resolution on "the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment", preceded by a UN Human Rights Council Resolution. As explained by the author, it is not the intention of this study to engage in a discussion of scholarly writing or a literature review of the multiple global and regional human rights institutions so surveyed, but to examine the practice of these institutions in relation to environmental issues and whether there are any principles, standards and consistencies, giving birth to a new interdisciplinary area, and concluding with a critical analysis of the potential fragmentation and cross-fertilization in this emerging field."

Professor Peter H. Sand, Institute of International Law, University of Munich, Formerly Legal Adviser for Environmental Affairs, World Bank, Commissioner for environmental damage, UN Compensation
Commission, Geneva