Addressing the threats to human rights in a changing climate: Reflections on the Human Rights Council’s 44th session

The world is focusing on the devastating health, social, and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the often inadequate social policies that are exacerbating the toll it is taking on communities. As a result, the international community’s attention to another human rights crisis — the climate emergency — has waned. Fortunately, last week’s 44th session of the Human Rights Council provided an opportunity for states to recenter and to take stock of the urgent need for action, scale up ambition toward carbon emissions reductions, and more effectively organize to put human rights at the core of climate responses. 

In last year’s opening statement to the Human Rights Council, Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, spoke of the danger of climate change, “The world has never seen a threat to human rights of this scope.” Indeed, the interlinkages between climate change and human rights are more visible today than ever before, and they will become even more so as global temperatures continue to rise throughout the end of the century.  The connection is evident in the heavy rains and floods across China and Southeast Asia that have caused mass displacement, death, and destruction, and wildfires that have ravaged everywhere from Australia to Chile, affecting both human lives and biodiversity systems.  Climate impacts will have a particularly devastating echo in countries that lack institutional, economic, or technological capacity to cope with and to adapt to them.

Throughout the session, participants emphasized the link between human rights and climate change, reiterating that the international community has a responsibility to address the growing crisis. Here are a few of the highlights:

The annual, full-day discussion on the rights of the child focused on the Right to a Healthy Environment. Children from Colombia and Brazil addressed participants, stressing the urgent need for a more ambitious and inclusive climate action plan. They demanded that world leaders not only take steps to safeguard nature, but also protect human rights and their future. In response, Bachelet expressed her full and explicit support, stating that, “The survival, health, well-being and development of children depends on an environment that is safe, clean, healthy and sustainable.” 

Later, the Council addressed the rights of people with disabilities, intending to highlight best practices in disability-inclusive climate action. Much of the conversation focused on increasing opportunities for effective participation.  This included involving people with disabilities throughout the decision-making process, increasing capacity, empowerment, and access to information through evidence-based approaches, and mobilizing useful resources. Members of the disability community specifically called out for greater representation and recognition at international climate negotiations, so that their needs and priorities can be identified effectively. The conversation was especially relevant in light of the pandemic, which is deepening climate-induced social inequalities and requires the immediate introduction of inclusive and accountable measures to increase climate change resilience for specific populations. As a byproduct of the conversation, Council members mandated further work on and consideration of the enjoyment of older peoples’ human rights and their vulnerabilities in the context of climate change.

In his address to the Council, the Human Rights Council’s Independent Expert on Human Rights and International Solidarity, Mr. Obiora C. Okafor, addressed how human rights norms can inform international cooperation efforts to respond to climate change. Mr. Okafor stressed the need for corporations, financial institutions, and the highest emitting states to halt the exploration of and new investments in fossil fuels as a matter of human-rights-based international solidarity. He called on high emitters to cooperate in an effort to reduce the economic asymmetries between states generated by the transformation of the fossil fuel economy, and to increase states’ capacity to develop and adapt to energy transitions. Critically, he highlighted the gaps and inequalities created by the global exploitation of fossil fuels and asymmetrical financial flows, noting that they dramatically expose the most marginalized communities to the effects of climate change. 

On the last day of the Council, the Marshall Islands, on behalf of Bahamas, Barbados, Fiji, Guyana, Haiti, Lesotho, Maldives, Palau, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu, and Jamaica, released a joint statement calling for the establishment of a special procedure on human rights and climate change. The group of nations says that the special procedure will strengthen the Council’s climate work, by “exhaust[ing] all avenues to uphold  the rights of all humankind, which is threatened every single day by climate change.” 

After a two-week-long Session, where many of the presentations emphasized the linkages between human rights and climate change, the Marshall Islands’ proposal to introduce a Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change provided a concrete, practical step for the Council to take immediate action on the growing crisis. As proposed, the mandate-holder could serve as a focal point for the Council on climate-related issues and help maintain an ongoing dialogue between governments, civil society, International Financial Institutions, Human Rights Treaty Bodies, and other relevant international bodies. Establishing such a figure would be advantageous — as climate-induced disasters continue to occur, there will be a need to closely engage with affected communities through country visits and communications. A Rapporteur would be instrumental in guiding states through advancing human-rights-based climate strategies and policies while continuing to meet the needs of every member of the community. 

For years, civil society and youth worldwide have been calling on governments and institutions to prevent the effects of climate change. Their demands for immediate action to not jeopardize the rights of future generations echoed throughout the sessions. And now it is time for the Council to answer their calls and to respond appropriately. Representatives from the Marshall Islands warned that if the Council does not act, future generations will look back on the Council and ask, “What did you do?” 

Andrea Scarpello

By Andrea Scarpello, Legal Intern, Geneva

Originally posted on July 27, 2020