Ocean Health and Human Rights Are Deeply Intertwined, UN Expert Says

 Astrid Puentes Riaño, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, has issued a compelling call to action ahead of the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3). Scheduled to be held in Nice, France, from 9 to 13 June 2025, the conference will bring together global leaders, policymakers, businesses, and civil society to shape the future of ocean governance.

Puentes Riaño urged delegates to place human rights at the heart of all decisions and pledges made at the event. “Human rights cannot be an afterthought,” she said. “They must be the core of ocean governance and of every ocean pledge.”

Nice Ocean Action Plan Must Anchor in Rights-Based Framework

The culmination of the conference will be the adoption of the Nice Ocean Action Plan, a political declaration accompanied by a registry of voluntary commitments from participating nations, corporations, and stakeholders. Puentes Riaño emphasized that this plan must be explicitly grounded in a human rights-based and ecosystem-based approach.

She called on delegates to integrate the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment throughout the declaration and its commitments. “The Plan and its commitments must be firmly grounded in human rights and geared towards promoting ocean and marine conservation,” she said.

Aligning Policy with the Precautionary Principle

One of the key demands put forward by the Special Rapporteur was alignment with the precautionary principle—a strategy for preventing harm even in the absence of complete scientific evidence. Puentes Riaño stressed this was particularly crucial in controversial and potentially destructive industries such as deep-seabed mining and marine geoengineering.

“These activities carry risks of irreversible damage to marine ecosystems,” she warned. “We must ensure preventive action, even without full scientific certainty.”

Inclusive Commitments for All Ocean Stakeholders

The Special Rapporteur emphasized that ocean policy must not only protect ecosystems but also the rights of communities most directly dependent on marine environments. She urged UNOC3 participants to include actionable commitments that promote:

• Access to information

• Public participation in decision-making

• Access to justice for marginalized communities

These include coastal communities, fisherfolk, Indigenous Peoples, people of African descent, women, children and youth, the LGBTI community, and persons with disabilities. These groups, Puentes Riaño noted, are often the first to suffer from environmental degradation but are last in line to receive justice or aid.

Private Sector Responsibility Under International Law

Businesses, too, have an obligation to uphold human rights in all ocean-related operations. Puentes Riaño called on companies to conduct rigorous human rights and environmental due diligence processes, including transparent impact assessments and public reporting.

“Human rights obligations extend beyond States,” she said. “Businesses must respect them through systematic accountability and environmental stewardship.”

UN Human Rights Council Resolution Backs Ocean Rights Framework

The Special Rapporteur’s appeal follows a major breakthrough on 3 April 2025, when the UN Human Rights Council adopted a landmark resolution acknowledging the ocean-human rights nexus. The resolution encourages States to explicitly incorporate the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment in the outcomes of the Nice Conference and future ocean policy frameworks.

This legal recognition strengthens the foundation for embedding rights-based approaches in ocean governance and supports the Rapporteur's call for a paradigm shift.

Ocean Issues Are Human Rights Issues

“Ocean issues are human rights issues, yet this connection is all too often overlooked in practice,” Puentes Riaño concluded. “We urgently need a fundamental shift in how these challenges are addressed and managed at every level of policy and decision-making.”

The upcoming UNOC3 offers a pivotal opportunity to enact that shift—anchoring ocean conservation efforts in justice, equity, and the unassailable rights of present and future generations.