Human Rights Council

The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system of 47 States responsible for promoting and protecting all human rights around the globe.

It has the ability to discuss all thematic human rights issues and situations that require its attention throughout the year. It meets at the UN Office in Geneva, Switzerland, three times a year.

The UN Human Rights Council and others have recognized that climate change is not only an environmental but also a human rights issue for the millions of people and communities worldwide experiencing these adverse impacts.

CIEL joins key sessions of the Council to defend our right to a healthy planet and respect the human rights of individuals and communities worldwide who are suffering from the deadly impact of the current triple planetary crisis — climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss.

Read our latest statements and interventions at the Council:

55th Session

• Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment – Statement welcoming report on business, planetary boundaries, and the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment
• Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights – Statement welcoming report on the right to participate in science
• Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the right to food – Statement welcoming report on fisheries and the right to food in the context of climate change
• Interactive Dialogue with the High Commissioner for Human Rights – Statement welcoming report on measures for minimizing the adverse impact of climate change on the full realization of the right to food
• Canada’s Universal Periodic Review Outcome – Statement calling on Canada to decommission Line 5

54th Session

• Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes – New report on the toxic impacts of some proposed climate change solutions
• Interactive Dialogue with the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee – Report on New Technologies intended for Climate Protection

53rd Session

• Interactive Dialogue with the UN Secretary-General – New report on the right to food and climate change.
• Annual Panel Discussion on the adverse impacts of climate change on human rights: The adverse impact of climate change on the full realization of the right to food
• Interactive Dialogue with the Independent Expert on International Solidarity
• Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on human rights and climate change on human mobility in the context of climate change

52nd Session

• General debate, Item 3: OHCHR’s report on the adverse impact of climate change on the full and effective enjoyment of human rights by people in vulnerable situations

• Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing – New report on the climate crisis and the right to housing

• Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment: New report on women, girls and the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment 

51st Session

• Interactive Dialogue with the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee – Item 5: The Risks of Geoengineering to Human Rights 

• General debate, Item 3: National Human Rights Institutions 

50th Session

• Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change

• Video statement, panel intervention on the impacts of climate change on the human rights of persons in vulnerable situations 

49th Session

• Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food

• Oral Intervention during the Item 3 interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment

48th Session

• General debate, Item 4: Statement on the human rights dimension of climate change

• General Debate, Item 2, on the High Commissioner’s Oral Updates 

• Media statement during the 48th Session of the Human Right Council: Right to Science

• Closing statement: Right to a Healthy Environment

47th Session:

• Video statement, General debate, Item 2:  The human rights impacts of climate change
• Video statement, Panel discussion on the adverse impact of climate change on the full and effective enjoyment of human rights by older persons: Joint Statement on the creation of a mandate for a  Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change