A/HRC/7/16 page 23 relief and rehabilitation efforts. In many of these situations, concerns raised include discrimination, gender insensitivity, lack of participation, and corruption and delay in distribution of aid, compensation and reconstruction work. 82. These situations impact women and children disproportionately, as previously highlighted by the Special Rapporteur.51 In some cases, compensation is reportedly distributed to heads of household and thus most often to men, while ignoring the equal rights of women over land and housing. 83. The absence of secure title to housing and land complicates access to compensation and rehabilitation, including permanent housing. 84. The Special Rapporteur has asked States and the international community to take necessary steps to relieve the plight of the victims of natural disasters.52 He welcomes the operational guidelines on human rights and natural disasters developed by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) that aims to assist States in developing policies to support persons affected by natural disasters and to protect their human rights.53 He hopes that these guidelines will be used by all actors who currently rely exclusively on the Sphere guidelines54 which the Special Rapporteur finds lacking in a strong human rights, including women’s rights, perspective.55 4. Climate change 85. Although the current and impending threats posed by climate change are being widely recognized, the human rights impacts need to be urgently addressed by the United Nations human rights system. Climate change has an impact on a range of human rights, including the rights to adequate housing, food and water. Climate change leads to increases in disasters, desertification, drought and loss of livelihood, which in turn increase displacement and force 51 See for instance E/CN.4/2006/118. 52 Such as in the case of Peru (http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/DF6CC2B0B9BBCE03C125733E004DA2 FB?opendocument), Iran (http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/D8A9D156584A8FE3C1256E140058426E ?opendocument), or after the 2004 Tsunami (http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/FE1B362DA1504590C12570DC00599CE A?opendocument). 53 Inter-Agency Standing Committee, Protecting Persons Affected by Natural Disasters: IASC Operational Guidelines on Human Rights and Natural Disasters (2006), available at http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/content/documents/working/OtherDocs/2006_IASC_ NaturalDisasterGuidelines.pdf. 54 55 See Sphere Project: http://www.sphereproject.org. See also, for example, Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), Guidelines for Gender Sensitive Disaster Management, (2006) available at www.apwld.org.