A/HRC/29/5 Ministry of Women, Youth and Social Affairs and the establishment of the Human Rights Taskforce and Human Rights Unit had placed Kiribati in a better position to advance its work on human rights and, in particular, speed up the process of preparing and submitting future periodic reports to relevant committees. 21. Kiribati would continue to work in cooperation with OHCHR and to seek support from United Nations agencies, regional bodies and development partners in building national capacity, training and exchanging human rights expertise and experiences with other Pacific island countries. 22. Kiribati had also been making progress in achieving internationally set goals, such as the Millennium Development Goals, despite various challenges, such as isolation, overpopulation and lack of data and access to rights and services. 23. The smallness of the islands and their geographic dispersion across a large ocean area made access to services, including the exorbitant cost of replicating those services, a major challenge. Further support was required in building local capacity and strengthening and resourcing existing structures and bodies that played a key role in human rights implementation and reporting. 24. In its national report, Kiribati had highlighted that the major challenge it faced was climate change. As a nation of low-lying islands, with an average elevation of only 2 metres above sea level, climate change and the resultant sea-level rise had added new and major challenges for Kiribati, including loss of territory, severe coastal erosion and involuntary displacement of communities, affecting food and water security. More importantly, it had become an issue of survival for the people of Kiribati. 25. Kiribati welcomed the upcoming full-day discussion on human rights and climate change scheduled for 6 March 2015, during the twenty-eighth session of the Human Rights Council. It encouraged small States to take that opportunity to share their views on challenges and best practices in addressing the adverse effects of climate change and human rights. Kiribati called upon the international community to continue to support the increased participation of small States, in particular those that did not have representation in Geneva, in the discussions on those important issues taking place during the sessions of the Human Rights Council. 26. Kiribati strongly believed that it was absolutely essential to address the challenges faced by low-lying nations due to climate change and the way in which climate change was affecting the very basic human right of Kiribati people to survive as a distinct culture, and to enjoy basic rights, such as access to clean drinking water and to food. 27. The Government of Kiribati had been doing its best to face the situation; it had been buying land offshore, focusing on education and upskilling people to prepare them to be able to “migrate with dignity” when the islands of Kiribati were no longer habitable. Kiribati had also initiated a coalition of the nations most vulnerable to climate change: the Coalition of Low-lying Atoll Nations on Climate Change. 28. Kiribati welcomed and appreciated assistance from development partners, but much more needed to be done. 29. Climate change and sea-level rise were global problems. Kiribati was on the front line, together with other low-lying countries, such as Maldives, the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu, as well as areas such as Tokelau, but so were the scores of millions of people in the Pacific region and around the world living in low-lying coastal cities, towns and village communities. Kiribati called for urgent regional and global action to help island States living in the same dangerous conditions as Kiribati. 7