Expo 2023 Doha / NHRC Launches Book on Protection of Right to Healthy Environment in Qatar

 

 

Doha, October 31 (QNA) - The National Human Right Committee (NHRC) on Tuesday launched a book on the protection of the right to healthy environment in the State of Qatar, in a ceremony held at the cultural activities building in Al Bidda Park and attended by NHRC NHRC Vice-Chairperson Dr. Mohammed bin Saif Al Kuwari.

The studies the connection between environmental issues, and respect and protection of human rights by explaining the nature of the standards and principles governing the right to the environment and the approaches to achieving its protection from a human rights perspective, and the position of this right in relation to relevant international documents and agreements, considering that the core United Nations human rights instruments (such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) have not include explicit references to the right to a healthy environment, because they were all developed before international awareness and interest in the environmental dangers and challenges facing humanity began.

The book is divided into several chapters, covering the right to the environment from a human rights perspective; plans and policies concerned with protecting the right to the environment; and a review of the progress made in protecting the environment and the challenges it faces from the perspective of sustainable development in the State of Qatar; in addition to the findings and recommendations, that summarize the study through two axes:

- The findings of the study with regard to the field of international interest in the right to the environment and the international efforts made within the framework of protecting the right to the environment.

- The findings and recommendations of the study in the second and third chapters, on the field of protection of the right to the environment by the Qatari legal system.

Addressing the ceremony, HE Vice-Chairperson of NHRC Dr. Mohammed bin Saif Al Kuwari stressed that the State of Qatar has been preoccupied with protecting the environment over the past decades, whether through its commitment to implementing the rules of international environmental law formulated by international agreements concerned with the environment, or the international and regional human rights instruments concerned with the environment to which it has become a party.

He added that the book studied all of these axes, analyzing the Qatari legal system for protecting the right to the environment through a study of constitutionalizing the right to the environment in the State of Qatar, explaining that the permanent constitution of the State of Qatar affirmed the right to the environment as one of the basic components of society in Article (33), and other provisions related to the basic components of society in Chapter Two (Articles 18-33).

Following the ceremony, a discussion panel was held with the participation of an elite of environment experts and specialists. (QNA)