States must not only abstain from violating the rights of individuals under their jurisdiction by ensuring that State agents do not commit such infringements. They must also intervene where acts committed by private parties, whether individuals, groups, or legal persons, threaten to violate those rights. Where there are indications that an individual is at risk of having his/her rights violated, or where a situation exists which gives rise to such a risk, preventive measures must be taken in order to ensure, to the fullest extent possible, that these risks do not materialize. And when the measures they adopt fail, and violations are caused by the conduct of non-State actors, State authorities may not remain passive: they are under an obligation to provide effective remedies to the individual whose rights have been violated in order to ensure that he/she will be compensated, and in certain cases that the wrongdoer will be sanctioned through administrative or criminal penalties.

It is one of the purposes of the United Nations to ‘promot[e] and encourag[e] respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion’ (Article 1, para. 3 of the UN Charter; see also Article 55(c), in chapter IX on international economic and social co-operation). The Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) reflects this emphasis on the prohibition of discrimination by stating that ‘[a]ll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights’ (Art. 1, first sentence), and by providing: ‘Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status’ (Article 2, first para.). Article 7 of the UDHR, which extends the scope of the requirement of non-discrimination beyond the enjoyment of the rights listed in the Declaration, also clearly imposes a positive obligation in this regard on the Member States of the United Nations: ‘All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.’ In addition, a number of rights of the UDHR refer to equal treatment among its different components: for example, Article 10 states that everyone ‘is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him’; under Article 16, men and women ‘are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution’; the participatory rights listed in Article 21 include the right of everyone to ‘equal access to public service in his country’ and to ‘universal and equal suffrage’; Article 26, para. 2 mentions the right of everyone, without any discrimination, to equal pay for equal work.

The United Nations Charter-based system of human rights monitoring went through major changes in 2006–7. Acting under Article 68 of the UN Charter, the Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc) established the Commission on Human Rights as an intergovernmental body initially composed of eighteen Member States. The membership of the Commission on Human Rights was gradually expanded to fifty-three members in 2006 to take account of the more diverse membership of the United Nations. The Commission was assisted in its work by the UN Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, until 1999 called the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. Despite major achievements, the system thus developed was considered to be overpoliticized and to lack credibility due, in particular, to the selective approach to the human rights records of governments. In its place, it was decided in 2005 to establish a Human Rights Council as a subsidiary organ of the UN General Assembly, whereas the former Commission on Human Rights was one of a number of subsidiary bodies of the Ecosoc.

Of all the prominent environmental issues of the past few decades, global climate change is the most serious and the most difficult to manage. It is the most serious because of the severity and breadth of harms it is likely to bring. Many aspects of human society and well-being – where we live, our health and productivity, how we build, how we move around, how we earn our livings, and what we do for recreation – depend on a relatively benign and narrow range of climate conditions, even though this dependence is lessened and less visible in modern industrial societies. Dependence on climate can be seen in the economic harms and human suffering caused by the climate variations of the past century, such as the “El Niño” cycle and the multi-year droughts that occur in western North America every few decades, and in the climate disruptions that have become more visible over the past two decades. Climate changes projected for the next several decades are substantially larger than those observed now or over the past century, and their human impacts are likely to be correspondingly greater. Moreover, climate does not just affect people directly: It also affects all other environmental processes, including many whose links to climate might not be obvious. Large or rapid changes in climate will intensify other environmental issues such as air quality, water availability and quality, endangered ecosystems and biodiversity, and threats to coastal zones, wetlands, and the stratospheric ozone layer.