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The United Nations Conference On Environment and Development (Unced)

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Earth Summit, was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992 with over 30,000 participants from 176 states. At the conference, five instruments to address global environmental issues were adopted, including two binding agreements - the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Non-binding instruments included the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, and a statement on sustainable forest management. The Rio Declaration outlined 27 principles to guide international cooperation on sustainable development, including principles on the right to a healthy environment, state responsibility to prevent transboundary harm, and the polluter pays principle.

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147 views3 pages

The United Nations Conference On Environment and Development (Unced)

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Earth Summit, was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992 with over 30,000 participants from 176 states. At the conference, five instruments to address global environmental issues were adopted, including two binding agreements - the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Non-binding instruments included the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, and a statement on sustainable forest management. The Rio Declaration outlined 27 principles to guide international cooperation on sustainable development, including principles on the right to a healthy environment, state responsibility to prevent transboundary harm, and the polluter pays principle.

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BM Ariful Islam
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

(UNCED)
The UNCED (also called Earth Summit/Rio Conference) took place in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil, from 3-14 June 1992, 20 years after the Stockholm
Conference attended by 176 states, more than 50 governmental
organizations, 7000 of non-governmental organizations and more than
30,000 participants.
Contents of Rio Conference:
At the historic Rio Conference 5 new legal instruments to address global
environmental problems were adopted, two of them binding and three of
them non-binding.
The two binding instruments include:

The Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The Convention on Biological Diversity.


The three other non-binding instruments include:

The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.

Agenda 21

A non-legally Binding Authoritative Statement of Principles for a


Global Consensus on the Management, Conservation and
Sustainable Development of All Types of Forests.
The Rio Declaration
The Rio Declaration represents a careful balance of the principles to be
considered important to the development and the developing countries and a
compromise between the objective of environmental protection and
economic development.
The text of the Declaration was completed at the fourth session of its Pre
Comm in April 1992 and was not reopened for negotiation at UNCED,
despite threats from a number of countries to do so. The final and solemn
adoption of the Declaration of Environment and Development took place on
13 June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, at the end of the Conference and was
endorsed by the UN General Assembly in December 1992.
The Declaration comprises of 27 principles which set out the foundation
upon which states and people are to cooperate and further develop
international law in the field of sustainable development. The Rio
Declaration is partly a renewed version of the Stockholm Principles, yet it

also includes new principles which have not been universally accepted
before, such as the right to development.
Features/Characteristics of Rio Declaration:
As a Declaration, it does not have a legally binding instrument. However, it
is relevant for environmental law for different reasons
First, as its preamble state, it can be considered as a step towards:
international agreements which respect the interests of all and protect
the integrity of the global environmental and developmental system.
Second point is that it assertedly repeats and confirms international legal
principles, which are more and more generally, accepted as customary rules.
Third, it formulates new principles, which may be considered as emerging
rules.
PRINCIPLE 1: Right to environment
Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development.
They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.
PRINCIPLE 2: State Obligation
States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the
principles of international law, the sovereign right to exploit their own
resources pursuant to their own environmental and developmental policies,
and the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or
control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas
beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.
PRINCIPLE 3: Right to Development (Sustainable Development)
Develop this principle for the first time in history.
The right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet
developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations.
PRINCIPLE 7: common but differentiated responsibilities
States shall co-operate in a spirit of global partnership to conserve, protect
and restore the health and integrity of the Earth's ecosystem. In view of the
different contributions to global environmental degradation, States have
common but differentiated responsibilities..
PRINCIPLE 11: Enactment of Effective Environmental Legislation
States shall enact effective environmental legislation. Environmental
standards, management objectives and priorities should reflect the
environmental and developmental context to which they apply. Standards
applied by some countries may be inappropriate and of unwarranted
economic and social cost to other countries, in particular developing
countries.

PRINCIPLE 13: Liability and Compensation


States shall develop national law regarding liability and compensation for
the victims of pollution and other environmental damage. States shall also
co-operate in an expeditious and more determined manner to develop further
international law regarding liability and compensation for adverse effects of
environmental damage caused by activities within their jurisdiction or
control to areas beyond their jurisdiction.
PRINCIPLE 16: Polluter bear cost of pollution
National authorities should endeavour to promote the internalization of
environmental costs and the use of economic instruments, taking into
account the approach that the polluter should, in principle, bear the cost of
pollution, with due regard to the public interest and without distorting
international trade and investment.
PRINCIPLE 18: Communicate with other state (harmful)
States shall immediately notify other States of any natural disasters or other
emergencies that are likely to produce sudden harmful effects on the
environment of those States. Every effort shall be made by the international
community to help States so afflicted.
PRINCIPLE 19: Communicate with other state (harmful)
States shall provide prior and timely notification and relevant information to
potentially affected States on activities that may have a significant adverse
transboundary environmental effect and shall consult with those States at an
early stage and in good faith.
PRINCIPLE 24: Prohibition of Weapon & Mass Destruction
Warfare is inherently destructive of sustainable development. States shall
therefore respect international law providing protection for the environment
in times of armed conflict and co-operate in its further development, as
necessary.
PRINCIPLE 27: Development of International law in sustainable
development.
States and people shall co-operate in good faith and in a spirit of partnership
in the fulfillment of the principles embodied in this Declaration and in the
further development of international law in the field of sustainable
development.

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