The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), India recently organised a meeting of its Core Group on Environment & Climate on the theme ‘Heat Wave and its Mitigation in Urban Areas’ in hybrid mode at Manav Adhikar Bhavan, New Delhi. The meet generated lots of interest among various stakeholders and saw a very meaningful participation.
Chairperson, Justice V. Ramasubramanian while presiding the meeting, said that there is a recurring annual discourse on pollution in winter and heat waves in summer for some time now without any visible effects of the mitigation efforts to protect human life from the impact of these crises.
NHRC Members, Justice (Dr.) Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi; Vijaya Bharathi Sayani; Secretary General; Bharat Lal; DG (I), Anupama Nilekar Chandra; Joint Secretary, Saidingpuii Chhakchhuak; Core Group members, Special Rapporteurs, Special Monitors, Senior Functionaries of Government of India and various parastatal organisations; Municipal Commissioners of Ahmedabad and Indore, eminent domain experts and members of civil society organisations were present in the meeting.
Justice Ramasubramanian said that the evolution of human rights initially focused on civil, political, social, cultural and economic rights after the First and Second World Wars, while environmental rights remained largely overlooked. Although the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted in 1948, serious discourse on environmental rights began around 1970 following growing awareness of environmental degradation and major ecological disasters.
