Policy Dialogue: The Human Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment

The dialogue will be facilitated by Benjamin Schachter, a Human Rights Officer and the focal point for climate change and the environment at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Prior to joining OHCHR, he worked as an attorney in the United States and as a Research Assistant to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples at the University of Arizona.

His current work focuses on the human rights impacts of climate change and other forms of environmental degradation and the corresponding obligations of States. Benjamin has also coordinated and led OHCHR’s delegation to the UNFCCC since 2015, organized Human Rights Council panel discussions on climate change in each of the last three years and prepared the related Human Rights Council reports including an analytical study on climate change and its impacts on the enjoyment of the human right to health (A/HRC/32/23), one on climate change and its impacts on the full and effective enjoyment of the rights of the child (A/HRC/35/13), and one on climate change and the rights of migrants (A/HRC/38/21).

Benjamin studied environmental, international, and human rights law at the University of Arizona, New York University and the National University of Singapore.