Due to the major success of last year’s run, Human Rights Watch is once again sponsoring a team of 30 people to participate in one of the most scenic city runs in the world. The stunning 13.1 mile route meanders through four of the eight iconic Royal Parks – Hyde Park, The Green Park, St. James’s Park, and Kensington Gardens – while also cruising by the capital’s world-famous landmarks on closed roads.   

WHY WE ARE RUNNING

As our generation faces serious environmental and social crises, the potential of the right to a healthy environment for progressive development and accountability cannot be understated. Its global recognition is long overdue. This right brings together the environmental dimensions of civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights, and protects the core elements of the natural environment that enable a life of dignity. It will give those exposed to mercury in artisanal gold mines in the Philippines, those poisoned by soot in Piquiá de Baixo in northeastern Brazil, those contaminated by lead in Kosovo, and activists attacked for protecting their environment and lands, the tools and political leverage they need to defend their rights.     

THE ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN RIGHTS DIVISION

As the world urbanises and industrialises, and as the effects of climate change intensify, environmental crises will increasingly devastate the lives, health, and livelihoods of people around the globe. Human Rights Watch has made human rights central to how governments and other powerful actors respond to these environmental threats. In response to the rising demand for our work linking human rights and the environment, in 2017 we established a dedicated Environment Program—the only one of its kind at any human rights organisation. Your strong support is helping us conduct research and advocacy focused on three critical themes: environmental defenders, toxic pollution, and climate change.