IUCN DRAFT ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
Among reasonable alternatives for action, preference shall be given to the
Part I. OBJECTIVE
ARTICLE 1 OBJECTIVE
This Covenant provides a comprehensive legal framework with the aim of
achieving environmental conservation, an indispensable foundation for
sustainable development.
Part II. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
In their actions to achieve the objective of this Covenant and to implement its
provisions, Parties shall cooperate, in global partnership, and shall be
guided, inter alia, by the following fundamental principles:
ARTICLE 2 RESPECT FOR ALL LIFE FORMS
Nature as a whole and all life forms warrant respect and are to be
safeguarded. The integrity of the Earth’s ecological systems shall be
maintained and where necessary restored.
ARTICLE 3 COMMON CONCERN OF HUMANITY
The global environment is a common concern of humanity and under the
protection of the principles of international law, the dictates of the public
conscience and the fundamental values of humanity.
ARTICLE 4 INTERDEPENDENT VALUES
Peace, development, environmental conservation and respect for human
rights and fundamental freedoms are indivisible, interrelated and
interdependent, and constitute the foundation of a sustainable world.
ARTICLE 5 EQUITY and Justice
Equity and justice shall guide all decisions affecting the environment and
shall oblige each generation to qualify its environmental conduct by
anticipating the needs of future generations.
ARTICLE 6 PREVENTION
Prevention of environmental harm is a duty and shall have priority over
remedial measures. The costs of pollution prevention, control and reduction
measures are to be borne by the originator.
ARTICLE 7 PRECAUTION
Precaution is a duty. Accordingly, even in the absence of scientific certainty,
appropriate action shall be taken to anticipate, prevent and monitor the risks
of serious or irreversible environmental harm.
ARTICLE 8 PROPORTIONALITY
alternative least harmful to the environment.
ARTICLE 9 RESILIENCE
The capacity of natural systems and human communities to withstand and
recover from environmental disturbances and stresses is limited, and shall be
sustained or restored as fully as possible.
ARTICLE 10 RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT
The right to development is universal and inalienable and entails the
obligation to meet environmental, as well as social and economic needs of
humanity in a sustainable and equitable manner.
ARTICLE 11 ERADICATION OF POVERTY
The eradication of poverty, which necessitates a global partnership, is
indispensable for sustainable development. Enhancing the quality of life for
all humanity and reducing disparities in standards of living are essential to a
just society.
ARTICLE 12 Common but Differentiated Responsibilities
States shall meet their duties in accordance with their common but
differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
Part III. GENERAL OBLIGATIONS
ARTICLE 13 STATES
1. States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the
principles of international law, the sovereign right to utilize their resources to
meet their environmental and developmental needs, and the duty to ensure
that activities within their jurisdiction or control respect the environment of
other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.
2. States have the right and the duty, in accordance with the Charter of the
United Nations and principles of international law, to take lawful action to
protect the environment under their jurisdiction from significant harm caused
by activities outside their national jurisdiction. If such harm occurs, they are
entitled to appropriate and effective remedies.
3. States shall take all appropriate measures to avoid wasteful use of natural
resources and ensure the sustainable use of renewable resources.
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ARTICLE 14 PHYSICAL AND LEGAL PERSONS
1. Parties undertake to achieve progressively the full realization of the right of
all persons to live in an ecologically sound environment adequate for their
development, health, well-being and dignity. They shall devote immediate
and special attention to the satisfaction of basic human needs.
2. Parties shall ensure that all physical and legal persons have a duty to
protect and conserve the environment.
3. Parties shall ensure that all persons, without being required to state an
interest, have the right to require environmental information from public
authorities, and to seek, receive, and disseminate information with regard to
the environment, subject only to such restrictions as may be provided by law
and are necessary for respect for the rights of others, for the protection of
national security or for the protection of the environment.
4. Parties shall ensure that all persons have the right to participate effectively
during decisionmaking processes at the local, national and international
levels regarding activities, measures, plans, programmes and policies that
may have a significant effect on the environment.
5. Parties shall ensure that all persons have the right of effective access to
administrative and judicial procedures, including for redress and remedies, to
challenge acts or omissions by private persons or public authorities, which
contravene national or international environmental law.
6. Parties shall develop or improve mechanisms to facilitate the involvement
of indigenous peoples, local communities, and vulnerable or marginalized
persons in environmental decision-making at all levels and shall take
measures to enable them to pursue sustainable traditional practices.
ARTICLE 15 INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Indigenous Peoples shall have a collective right to protection of the
environment, including their lands, territories and resources, as distinct
peoples in accordance with their traditions and customs.
ARTICLE 16 INTEGRATED POLICIES
1. Parties shall pursue integrated policies aimed at eradicating poverty,
encouraging sustainable consumption and production patterns, and
conserving biological diversity and the natural resource base as overarching
objectives of, and essential requirements for, sustainable development.
2. Parties shall, at all stages and at all levels, integrate environmental
conservation into the planning and implementation of their policies and
activities, giving full and equal consideration to environmental, economic,
social and cultural factors. To this end, the Parties shall: (a) conduct regular
national reviews of environmental and developmental policies and plans; (b)
enact, periodically review, and enforce laws and regulations; and (c)
establish or strengthen institutional structures and procedures to integrate
environmental and developmental issues in all spheres of decision-making.
3. Parties which are members of international organizations undertake to
pursue within such organizations policies which are consistent with the
provisions of this Covenant.
ARTICLE 17 TRANSFER OR TRANSFORMATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL
HARM
Parties shall not resolve their environmental problems by transferring, directly
or indirectly, harm or hazards from one area or medium to another or
transforming one type of environmental harm to another.
ARTICLE 18 EMERGENCIES
1. Parties shall, without delay and by the most expeditious means available,
notify potentially affected States and competent international organizations of
any emergency originating within their jurisdiction or control, or of which they
have knowledge, that may cause harm to the environment.
2. A Party within whose jurisdiction or control such emergency originates
shall immediately take all practicable measures necessitated by the
circumstances, in cooperation with affected and potentially affected States,
and where appropriate, competent international organizations, to prevent,
mitigate and eliminate harmful effects of the emergency.
3. Parties shall take all necessary measures to provide immediate relief for
those displaced by natural disasters.
Part IV. OBLIGATIONS RELATING TO NATURAL SYSTEMS AND
RESOURCES
ARTICLE 19 STRATOSPHERIC OZONE
Parties shall take all appropriate measures to prevent or restrict human
activities which modify or are likely to modify the stratospheric ozone layer in
ways that adversely affect human health and the environment.
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ARTICLE 20 GLOBAL CLIMATE
Parties shall take precautionary measures to protect the Earth’s climate
system and mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. To these ends,
they shall cooperate internationally inter alia to: (a) Measure their emissions
and implement nationally appropriate mitigation actions; and (b) Establish
risk management and implement adaptation measures to enable climate
resilient development.
ARTICLE 21 SOIL
Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure the conservation and
where necessary the regeneration of soils for living systems by taking
effective measures to prevent large-scale conversion and soil degradation, to
combat desertification, to safeguard the processes of organic decomposition
and to promote the continuing fertility of soils.
ARTICLE 22 WATER
Parties shall take all appropriate measures to maintain and restore the
quality of all forms of water, including both salt and fresh water, whether
contained in the atmosphere, the oceans, in underground aquifers or
watercourses such as lakes and rivers to meet basic human needs and as an
essential component of aquatic systems. Parties also shall take all
appropriate measures, in particular through integrated conservation and
management of water resources and appropriate sanitary measures, to
ensure the availability of sufficient quantities of water to satisfy basic human
needs and to maintain aquatic systems.
ARTICLE 23 ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
Parties shall take appropriate measures to conserve and, where necessary
and possible, restore natural systems which support life on Earth in all its
diversity, and maintain and restore the ecological functions and services of
these systems as an essential basis for sustainable development, including,
inter alia,
(a) forests as natural means to control erosion and floods, and for their role in
the climate system;
(b) freshwater wetlands and floodplains as habitat, recharge areas for
groundwater, aquifers, floodwater buffers, filters and oxidizing areas for
contaminants;
(c) marine ecosystems as essential habitats for support of fisheries, as
natural defenses against coastal erosion, as reservoirs of biological diversity,
and for their role in maintaining global geochemical cycles including the
global climate system; and (d) polar regions as essential to global
environmental values and the global climate system.
ARTICLE 24 ECOSYSTEM APPROACH
Parties shall, as appropriate, implement their obligations according to
relevant principles of the ecosystem approach. In particular they shall: (a)
manage aquatic systems as integrated units covering the full extent of the
catchment, recharge and discharge areas; and (b) manage coastal systems
as integrated units covering both aquatic and terrestrial components.
ARTICLE 25 BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
1. Parties shall take all appropriate measures to conserve biological diversity,
including species diversity, genetic diversity within species, and ecosystem
diversity, especially through in situ conservation based on the concept of an
ecological network. To this end, Parties shall:
(a) integrate conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and its
components into their physical planning systems, by ecosystem
management;
(b) establish a system of protected areas, where appropriate with buffer
zones and interconnected corridors; and
(c) prohibit the taking or destruction of endangered species, protect their
habitats, and where necessary develop and apply recovery or restoration
plans for such species.
2. Parties shall regulate or manage biological resources with a view to
ensuring their conservation, sustainable use, and where necessary and
possible, restoration. To this end, based on the ecosystem approach, Parties
shall:
(a) develop and implement conservation and management plans for
harvested biological resources;
(b) prevent a decrease in the quantity of harvested populations of animals
and plants below the level necessary to ensure stable recruitment;
(c) safeguard or restore habitats essential to the continued existence of the
species or populations concerned;
(d) maintain or restore ecological relationships between harvested and
dependent or associated species or populations; and
(e) prevent or minimize incidental taking of non-target species and prohibit
indiscriminate means of taking.
ARTICLE 26 CULTURAL AND NATURAL HERITAGE
Parties shall take all appropriate measures to protect cultural and natural
heritage including measures:
(a) to conserve or rehabilitate, in situ, cultural and natural monuments, and
areas, including landscapes, of outstanding scientific, cultural, spiritual, or
aesthetic significance;
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(b) to prevent all measures and acts which are likely to harm or threaten such
monuments or areas; and
(c) to preserve, ex situ, heritage at risk of loss.
Part V. OBLIGATIONS RELATING TO PROCESSES AND ACTIVITIES
ARTICLE 27 PREVENTION OF HARM
Parties shall identify and evaluate substances, technologies, processes and
categories of activities that have or are likely to have significant adverse
effects on the environment or public health. They shall provide a system of
authorization and survey, regulate or manage them with a view to preventing
any significant harm.
ARTICLE 30 INTRODUCTION OF ALIEN OR MODIFIED ORGANISMS
1. Parties shall prohibit the intentional introduction into the environment of
alien or modified organisms which may have adverse effects on other
organisms or the environment. They shall also take the appropriate
measures to prevent invasion, accidental introduction or escape of such
organisms.
2. Parties shall assess and as appropriate, prevent or effectively manage the
risks of adverse effects on other organisms or the environment associated
with the development, use and release of modified organisms resulting from
biotechnologies.

ARTICLE 28 POLLUTION
Parties shall take, individually or jointly, all appropriate measures to prevent,
reduce, control, and eliminate, to the fullest extent possible, detrimental
changes in the environment from all forms of pollution. For this purpose, they
shall use the best environmental practices and best available technologies at
their disposal and shall endeavour to harmonize their policies. In particular,
Parties shall, to the extent possible, eliminate pollution that is toxic,
hazardous, or bioaccumulative.
3. Parties shall take all appropriate measures to control and, to the extent
possible, eradicate alien or modified organisms when such organisms have
or are likely to have a significant adverse effect on other organisms or the
environment.
4. Parties shall take all appropriate measures to contain the natural
reservoirs of zoonotic diseases, in order to prevent their transmission
between species.

ARTICLE 29 WASTE

1. Parties shall ensure that the generation of waste is prevented or

minimized, particularly through the use of non-waste technology.

2. Waste shall be reused, recovered, and recycled.

3. Waste which cannot be reused, recovered, or recycled, shall be disposed

of in an environmentally sound manner, to the fullest extent possible at
source.

4. Under no circumstances shall a Party export or permit the export of waste

where it has reason to believe that such waste will not be managed in an
environmentally sound manner or to a place where waste import has been
banned. If a transboundary movement cannot be completed in compliance
with these requirements, the exporting Party shall ensure that such waste is
taken back if alternative environmentally sound arrangements cannot be
made.