{"id":1757,"date":"2020-06-05T23:07:11","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T23:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mfa.gr\/sweden\/joint-statement-of-the-institutions-of-the-council-of-europe-on-the-occasion-of-world-environment-day-june-2020\/"},"modified":"2020-06-05T23:07:11","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T23:07:11","slug":"joint-statement-of-the-institutions-of-the-council-of-europe-on-the-occasion-of-world-environment-day-june-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mfa.gr\/sweden\/en\/joint-statement-of-the-institutions-of-the-council-of-europe-on-the-occasion-of-world-environment-day-june-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Joint statement of the Institutions of the Council of Europe on the occasion of World Environment Day (5 June 2020)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Secretary General of the 47-nation
\nCouncil of Europe, Marija Pej\u010dinovi\u0107 Buri\u0107, the Chair of the Committee
\nof Ministers and Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic
\nRepublic, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, and the President of the Council of
\nEurope\u2019s Parliamentary Assembly, Rik Daems, have issued the following
\nstatement:<\/p>\n

\u201cAlongside the huge challenges brought
\nby the coronavirus pandemic, it is clear that climate change and damage
\nto our natural environment pose an immense threat to our well-being.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe European Convention on Human
\nRights, which turns 70 this year, helps to protect our lives, our
\nfamilies and our homes against environmental threats \u2013 and in all other
\ncircumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe European Court of Human Rights has
\nalready ruled in some 300 cases linked to the environment, covering
\nissues ranging from dangerous industrial activities to waste management
\nand pollution.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmong other things, the Court\u2019s
\ncase-law has helped to guarantee people\u2019s right to pass on and receive
\ninformation about environmental issues, to join forces with others, to
\ntake part in decisions which affect them and to challenge official
\ndecisions in court.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have also seen how the Convention
\ncan be used at national level to press governments to take faster and
\nmore drastic steps to cut greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoreover, the European Social Charter
\nhas been interpreted as covering the right to a healthy environment,
\nleading to several important decisions and conclusions from the European
\n Committee of Social Rights prompting state action on environmental
\nissues.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs countries across Europe emerge from
\nlockdown and look to the future, we must make full use of the tools we
\nhave \u2013 including human rights \u2013 to help build and maintain a healthy
\nenvironment for generations to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should also consider how to further sharpen those tools to make them as effective as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe therefore fully support the
\ndeclaration adopted last month by the previous, present and future
\nChairs of the Council of Europe\u2019s Committee of Ministers calling on the
\norganisation to start working towards a new legal text on human rights
\nand the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurthermore, we eagerly look forward to
\n the High Level International Conference on \u2018Human Rights for the
\nPlanet\u2019, to be held at the European Court of Human Rights on 5 October,
\nand the discussions on democracy\u2019s contribution to saving the
\nenvironment which are scheduled to take place at this year\u2019s World Forum
\n for Democracy in Strasbourg from 16 to 18 November.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are convinced that respecting human
\nrights and protecting the environment go hand-in-hand. We should make
\nfull use of, and further strengthen, the powerful tools that we have to
\nhelp build a better future for us all.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Secretary General of the 47-nation Council of Europe, Marija Pej\u010dinovi\u0107 Buri\u0107, the Chair of the Committee of Ministers and Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, and the President of the Council of Europe\u2019s Parliamentary Assembly, Rik Daems, have issued the following statement: \u201cAlongside the huge challenges brought by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embassy-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mfa.gr\/sweden\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mfa.gr\/sweden\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mfa.gr\/sweden\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfa.gr\/sweden\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfa.gr\/sweden\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfa.gr\/sweden\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mfa.gr\/sweden\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfa.gr\/sweden\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfa.gr\/sweden\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}