Draft Global Pact for the Environment

The Draft Global Pact for the Environment was intended to codify general principles of environmental law and fill gaps in the existing legal framework. However, the states recommended that a simple political declaration be adopted, which recommendation was endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly. The Draft Global Pact was considered to possibly become a legally binding, unified, global framework on the environment. It intended to situate fundamental rights under international law by supplementing the 1966 conventions on civil and political, economic, social and cultural rights, with environmental rights. It is based on intergenerational equity, as well as focusing on two core provisions, namely, the right to live in an ecologically sound environment and a duty to take care of the environment. It further refers to the precautionary principle and the principle of non-regression.