A/HRC/31/52
onset events, both of which have adverse effects on the full enjoyment of all human rights.
The Council has also held a seminar and several panel discussions on climate change. In the
panel discussion at its twenty-eighth session, the President of Kiribati, Anote Tong, and the
Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Enele Sosene Sopoaga, among others, described how climate
change threatens their countries and called on States to respond effectively and swiftly. The
Council has also discussed the effects of climate change on particular countries during its
universal periodic review.3
14.
The Human Rights Council has encouraged mandate holders to consider the issue of
climate change and human rights within their respective mandates.4 They have published a
number of reports on different aspects of the relationship, including by the Special
Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of
living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context (A/64/255), the Special
Rapporteur on the rights of internally displaced persons (A/66/285), the Special Rapporteur
on the human rights of migrants (A/67/299) and, most recently, the Special Rapporteur on
the right to food (A/70/287). In June 2014, the then-Independent Expert on human rights
and the environment issued an informal report summarizing the statements of the mandate
holders, the human rights treaty bodies and others on climate change.5
15.
In 2014 and 2015, mandate holders took several joint actions to emphasize the
importance of a human rights perspective on climate action.6 In an open letter in October
2014, 27 mandate holders called on the parties to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change to recognize the adverse effects of climate change on the
enjoyment of human rights and to adopt urgent and ambitious mitigation and adaptation
measures to prevent further harm. They proposed that the climate agreement then under
negotiation include language stating that the parties ��shall, in all climate change related
actions, respect, protect, promote, and fulfil human rights for all”. On 10 December 2014,
Human Rights Day, which fell during the twentieth session of the Conference of the
Parties, held in Lima, all 73 of the mandate holders issued a statement urging States to
adopt the proposed language and underscoring that “human rights must be pivotal in the
ongoing negotiations and the new agreement must be firmly anchored in the human rights
framework”. The then-Independent Expert and several other mandate holders delivered this
message in person at the session.
16.
In April 2015, at the request of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (a group of the States
most vulnerable to climate change), the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with
disabilities, the Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, the Special
Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the Special Rapporteur on the human
right to safe drinking water and sanitation, and the Independent Expert on human rights and
international solidarity issued a report on the adverse effects on the enjoyment of human
rights of even a 2°C increase in the average global temperature. On World Environment
Day, 5 June 2015, 27 mandate holders described these effects and again urged States to
ensure that human rights are at the core of climate change governance.
3
4
5
6
See, for example, A/HRC/29/2, paras. 392-400 (discussing Kiribati).
See resolutions 10/4, para. 3; 26/27, para. 8; and 29/15, para. 7.
“Mapping human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable
environment: focus report on human rights and climate change” (June 2014). Available from
www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Environment/MappingReport/ClimateChangemapping15August.docx.
The statements and reports are available from
www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Environment/SREnvironment/Pages/ClimateChange.aspx.
5
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