The Council of Europe will host the first European Forum on Environmental Human Rights Defenders in Strasbourg. Media access will be available only on 4 June, as the first day will take place in a closed format reserved for environmental human rights defenders. The opening session on 4 June will feature Bjørn Berge, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sirpa Rautio, Director of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Petra Bayr, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and Mattias Guyomar, President of the European Court of Human Rights.

Participants will also include Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty, Teresa Anjinho, the European Ombudsman, Astrid Puentes Riaño, UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and Strasbourg Mayor Catherine Trautmann. Michel Forst, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention, will take part throughout the Forum and in discussions on strengthening protection mechanisms for environmental defenders.