U.N. Resolution adopted on Human Rights and Climate Change
On March 26, 2008 the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted by consensus a resolution on human rights and climate change. The resolution was co-sponsored by 69 countries. The resolution recognizes that climate change poses an immediate and far-reaching threat to people and communities around the world and has implications for the full enjoyment of human rights. The resolution requests that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights conduct a detailed study on human rights and climate change.

The Maldives, which has been very active in drawing international attention to the human impacts from climate change, tabled the resolution. Earlier this year, in November 2007, the Maldives hosted a meeting of Small Island States that adopted the Male' Declaration on the Human Dimension of Global Climate Change. CIEL was invited to speak at that meeting and actively contributed to the drafting of the Male Declaration.

CIEL has actively engaged the human rights and climate change interface. We worked closely with the Maldives Government to prepare the Male' Declaration on the Human Dimension of Climate Change. CIEL also worked with two partner organizations, Earthjustice and the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), to prepare a human rights petition on behalf of the Inuit, which was filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in December 2005. CIEL is also preparing a paper for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on A Rights-Based Approach to Climate Change Mitigation.

Please click here for more information on CIEL's work on global warming and human rights, or contact Marcos Orellana or Lauren Baker


This page last modified on 8 April 2008.