Published in May 2010, the paper describes how the climate change and human rights issues have developed in practice, assessing its application in the work of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). It concludes by recommending ways in which the CESCR can contribute to the climate change and human rights interface, including, for example: drafting model questions on climate change and human rights; requesting States affected by climate change to prepare special reports on its effects on human rights; and adopting a general comment or public statement on the linkages between climate change and human rights.

The paper was a result of a recommendation resulting from a workshop that CIEL co-organized with FES to explore the climate change and human rights interface. The workshop, held in January 2009, brought together a groups of experts on environmental law, international and human rights law and representatives of human rights organizations. As a result of that workshop, CIEL prepared an analytical report, Human Rights and Climate Change: Practical Steps for Implementation, to design a practical way forward to integrate human rights and climate change law and policy.

Since the January 2009 workshop, CIEL has continued to elaborate on the linkages between climate change and human rights. We co-sponsored a panel discussion with FES entitled, Practical Approaches to Integrating Human Rights and Climate Change Law and Policy, at the United Nations in Geneva in March 2009. The discussion was based on CIEL's new publication, Climate Change and Human Rights: A Practical Way Forward. During the 11th Session of the Human Rights Council, June 2009 in Geneva, CIEL participated in a dialogue with member States on human rights and climate change. In the dialogue, we urged the Human Rights Council to take action to ensure that climate change does not harm human rights. In late June, we held a side-event on Human Rights and Climate Change with FES and the Council for Human Right Policy (ICHRP) during the Annual Global Humanitarian Forum (GHF) Conference in Geneva. We also co-hosted an event in Bonn at the UNFCCC negotiations in 2009, presenting an Issue Brief on Climate Change & Human Rights.


For more information, please contact Marcos Orellana.