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International Human Rights Declarations, Conventions and Charters Relevant to Environmental Concerns

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
  The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was unanimously adopted by the United Nations in 1948
  
  
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
  Signed by the US in 1977, ratified in1992 and entered into force in 1992, though with reservations on articles 5-7,10(2,3),15(1),19,20,27 and 47, and formal understandings on articles 2(1),4(1),7,9(5),14(3,6),26. Ratification means that the provisions of this instrument, aside from the reservations, do have the force of domestic law in the US
  
  
• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
  Signed by the US in 1977; not ratified
  
  
• Convention on the Rights of the Child
  Signed by the US in 1995; not ratified. Though the US has not ratified this convention, “One hundred and ninety states have agreed to become parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, giving it the distinction of being the most widely ratified treaty in the history of the world.” (Lauren, Paul Gordon, The Evolution of International Human Rights, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2d ed, 2003, p 249)
  
  
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
  Signed by the US in 1980; not ratified
  
  
• Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
  
  
• The World Health Organization Declaration of Alma Ata
  1978
  
  
• American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man
  1948
  
  
• American Convention on Human Rights
  1978
  
  
• Nuremberg Code
  Rights enunciated in the 1947 Nuremberg Code are for the protection of individuals being studied in research protocols. If the case can be made that a population is being studied as research subjects, then provisions of the Nuremberg Code would apply to individuals in that population
  
  
• Charter on Industrial Hazards and Human Rights
  Promulgated by the Permanent People’s Tribunal on Industrial Hazards and Human Rights, 1996
  
  
• Draft Declaration of Principles on Human Rights and the Environment
  1994
  
  
• The Aarhus Convention 1998
  
  
• Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights
  2003
  
  
• United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
  2007
  
  
• These documents are also available online at The University of Minnesota Human Rights Library, an online searchable collection of Human Rights documents, treaties, bibliographies and other educational materials