United Nations Conference on the Human Environment

United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, the first United Nations (UN) conference that focused on international environmental issues. The conference, held in Stockholm, Sweden, from June 5 to 16, 1972, reflected a growing interest in conservation issues worldwide and laid the foundation for global environmental governance. The final declaration of the Stockholm Conference was an environmental manifesto that was a forceful statement of the finite nature of Earth’s resources and the necessity for humanity to safeguard them. The Stockholm Conference also led to the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in December 1972 to coordinate global efforts to promote sustainability and safeguard the natural environment.

The roots of the Stockholm Conference lie in a 1968 proposal from Sweden that the UN hold an international conference to examine environmental problems and identify those that required international cooperation to solve. The 1972 conference was attended by delegations from 114 governments. (It was boycotted by Soviet-bloc countries because of the exclusion of the German Democratic Republic [East Germany], which did not hold a UN seat at the time.) Documents created during the conference influenced international environmental law; one notable example was the final declaration, which elucidated 26 principles concerning the environment. The conference also produced the “Framework for Environmental Action,” an action plan containing 109 specific recommendations related to human settlements, natural-resource management, pollution, educational and social aspects of the environment, development, and international organizations.

The final declaration was a statement of human rights as well as an acknowledgment of the need for environmental protection. The first principle began “Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being.” The need to preserve the environment was not placed in opposition to economic development. In fact, their interdependence was explicitly stated in principles 8 and 9.

Several other topics were also treated by the final declaration. These topics included:

• the necessity of conservation, including the preservation of wildlife habitat (principle 4),
• the avoidance of polluting the seas (principle 7),
• the wide use of nonrenewable resources (principle 5),
• the importance of developing coordinated planning (principles 13–17),
• the importance of environmental education (principle 19),
• the facilitation of scientific research and the free flow of information (principle 20),
• the development of international law regarding environmental pollution and damage (principle 22),
• and the elimination and destruction of nuclear weapons (principle 26).