States must prioritise climate change in their human rights engagement

Climate change has devastating impacts on human rights, such as the rights to water, health, housing, food, culture and life. It will be impossible to protect human rights in the remainder of the 21st century without addressing climate change. Yet climate change remains a topic of marginal interest in the human rights priorities of many States. There is an urgent need for States to prioritise climate change in their human rights agendas, starting with elevating this issue in the work of the Human Rights Council.

This week GI-ESCR and partners called on States to scale up their engagement on climate change to match the urgency and scale of the human rights threats posed.  Whilst the Human Rights Council is increasingly paying attention to climate change, this topic receives limited attention in the Universal Periodic Review process (UPR) - the influential peer review process that sees States making recommendations to each other on how to improve their human rights record. Further, some States are pushing for the annual resolution on human rights and climate change to be ‘bi-annualised’, reducing the frequency with which this pressing issue is addressed.

As States discussed the outcomes of the UPR process during the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, NGOs urged States to highlight the human rights implications of climate change in their UPR recommendations. In a joint statement with Franciscans International, Amnesty International, the Center for International Environmental Law and Earthjustice, we urged States to regularly make concrete, policy relevant recommendations to all States, particularly the big emitters, on human rights obligations with respect to mitigation, adaptation and international cooperation.

It is time for States to take seriously the threat posed by climate change to human rights in every country in the world and to elevate their discussions on this topic in the international human rights bodies and mechanisms. The UPR is an important avenue for States to press for action on the most vital human rights issues and climate change should be one of the top issues on the UPR agenda.