The International Conference on Human Rights and the Environment took place in Tehran in May 2009 and was attended by around 150 participants, including 10 international and five Iranian speakers. It was conceived as an opportunity to bring together leading international experts in this field to seek greater clarity on the important but, as yet, under-conceptualised question of the nexus between human rights and the environment. Both in the papers presented and in the resulting Declaration text, cultural heritage was seen as a key element in both aspects of this nexus and as fundamental to achieving a suitable accommodation between the two.

At the opening of the conference, Bakary Kante (UNEP) delivered a message to the Conference from the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme. Bagher Asadi (Iran) also presented a report on the International Conference on Environment, Peace and the Dialogue among Civilizations and Cultures held in Tehran in 2005 that was suitable predecessor to this one.

Seyyed Fazlolla Mousavi (Iran) illustrated evidence of a concern for the environment and rights and duties associated with it in the Islamic tradition and Linda Hajjar Leib (Australia) proposed a new categorisation of rights to accommodate the right to the environment. The social implications of climate change for armed conflict were addressed by Ole Magnus Theisen (Norway) while Jorge Daniel Taillant (Argentina) reflected on the political and economic dimensions of the human rights and environment linkages. Dinah Shelton (USA) examined ways in which a rights-based approach to climate change can be made subject to international litigation.

Several papers presented regional and/or national perspectives to this question, with Michel Prieur (France) presenting European and French developments, İbrahim Ö. Kaboğlu (Turkey) discussing the establishment of environmental rights in Turkey under the influence of international and European developments, Mohammad Hossein Ramazani Ghavamabadi (Iran) amd Hassan Habibi (Iran) addressing the implementation of the right to environment in Iran and relevant Iranian legislation, and Wang Xi (China) presenting the National Action Plan for Human Rights of the People's Republic of China (2009–2010) with a focus on its environment-related aspects. Parvez Hassan (Pakistan) examined, in particular, the experience of the Pakistani courts in pushing forward an environmental right, accompanied with a call for a Regional Plan of Action in this area. Malgosia Fitzmaurice (UK) presented the jurisprudence of the English courts and their treatment of an environmental human right.

Three papers contained a specifically cultural and/or cultural heritage perspective that makes clear the close connection between cultural heritage and the human rights/environment nexus. Ben Boer and Stefan Gruber (Australia) considered the relationship between human rights, heritage conservation law and the environment. They noted that humankind is a part of nature while, at the same time, human cultural artefacts are drawn from, shaped by or influenced by the natural environment. Therefore, recognising the interrelated nature of these cultural and natural elements and granting them legal protection contributes to the richness of human societies. Given that the tangible aspects of the cultural and natural heritage are generally non-renewable, there is a clear parallel with the natural resources of the environment. Janet Blake (Iran) considered the importance of respecting cultural rights and cultural diversity (in particular linguistic diversity) for protecting the environment. Her paper was based on the proposition that the relationship between human societies and the physical environment—the ‘environmental media’ of air, water, sea and land—is a complex and mutual one built up over millennia and that there is frequently a direct connection between culture (often traditional and local culture) and sustainability of resource exploitation and environmental stewardship. In his paper, Julian Burger (OHCHR, Geneva) took as his particular emphasis the role of indigenous people and their cultural heritage in ensuring environmental sustainability and the importance, therefore, of protecting their associated human rights. After examining international law developments in this area, his presentation argued that respecting the rights of indigenous peoples will contribute to a better protection of the environment and to a more humane and ultimately more effective response to the current crisis.

An important outcome of this conference was the adoption of the Tehran Declaration on Human Rights and the Environment that crystallises much of the thinking and debate during the conference. The text of this Declaration is printed in the current issue of the journal.