Astrid Puentes Riaño, United Nations special rapporteur on the right to a healthy environment at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, 6 March 2026. (UN Human Rights Council/Anastasiia Lavrenteva)

War, mining, and disinformation are threatening right to a healthy environment, says UN expert Astrid Puentes Riaño. Two years into her mandate, the UN special rapporteur on the right to a healthy environment, tells Geneva Solutions about the right’s emerging threats from wars, the latest wave of mining, and misinformation.

⚖️IRAN'S DAY AT THE COUNCIL. As the conflict intensifies in the Middle East, Iran is set to be at the centre of heated discussions at the Human Rights Council today.

An independent fact-finding mission and the special rapporteur on Iran will present their findings on recent human rights violations in the country through most of the day, while the Islamic Republic’s mission will shift discussions to the US attack on a girls’ school that killed at least 168 people at an afternoon side event.

Recent repression. A draft report by Iran rights expert Mai Sato on the situation in January and February documents mass arbitrary arrests, torture, unlawful killings, unfair trials and enforced disappearances of protesters, based on testimonies from individuals and civil society organisations.

Human rights organisations have reported that at least 7,000 people were killed in the protests that began in December, while Iranian authorities claim 3,117 people died during that time.

Earlier violations. The fact-finding mission, meanwhile, is set to report on rights violations dating back to September 2022 when the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini sparked the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement.

Its team documented extrajudicial killings, gender-based violence, torture and persecution of protesters and their families, and concluded that some of the abuses may amount to crimes against humanity, according to a draft of its findings.

Reporting challenges. Like Mai, the three person fact-finding mission was refused unhindered access to the country by Tehran, and compelled to work remotely, sourcing information from individuals as well as civil society groups inside Iran and elsewhere.

The mission also reported that its work had been impacted by UN austerity measures, including limited access to interpreters.

School attack. Preliminary findings in a US military investigation point to Washington’s responsibility in the attack on the elementary school in Minab.

Sato's report condemned the military strikes by Israel and the US on Iran, noting that the indiscriminate targeting of civilians and schools constitute grave rights violations. It also expressed concern over Iran’s riposte, attacking countries across the region.

Read about Iran’s response in Geneva to US-Israeli attacks

🇻🇪NOT OUT OF SIGHT. Also on Monday, the UN fact-finding mission on Venezuela will present its findings on developments since the US military operation and capture of former president Nicolás Maduro on 3 January, emphasising that core structures responsible for rights violations prevail.

Not at face value. It noted in a statement last week that senior government and military officials which the mission had previously linked to crimes against humanity remain in office. And while the government announced prisoner releases and an amnesty law aimed at freeing more people, politically-motivated detentions continue, and colectivos, armed civilian groups, pursue their harassment of government opponents and journalists.

Read our interview with a member of the Venezuelan opposition leadership warning of the risks of US cooperation with regime in Caracas.

— Paula Dupraz-Dobias

❝Great powers won’t save human rights. The rest of us must. In a world dominated by great powers, the UN human rights system still has one last lifeline: strength in numbers, writes Raphaël Viana David, human rights advocate at the International Service for Human Rights.