A/HRC/31/52 17. The attention to climate change and human rights reached a crescendo at the twentyfirst session of the Conference of the Parties, which met in Paris in December 2015. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights made a powerful statement that urgent, effective and ambitious action to combat climate change is not only a moral imperative, but also necessary in order to satisfy the duties of States under human rights law.7 The Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment also reminded States that their human rights obligations encompass climate change and urged them to adopt a rights perspective in negotiating the new agreement.8 He and other mandate holders, including the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food and the Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity, presented these messages in Paris in person, as did a delegation from OHCHR. 18. In connection with the Paris conference, other international organizations published reports on climate change and human rights. For example, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) published a thorough examination of the application of human rights norms to climate change, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) issued a detailed study of the effects of climate change on children. 9 19. Throughout 2015, Governments also increased their attention to the relationship between climate change and human rights. In February 2015, OHCHR and the Mary Robinson Foundation on Climate Justice co-hosted a Climate Justice Dialogue in Geneva, which brought together delegates to the climate negotiations and the Human Rights Council. One outcome of the meeting was the Geneva Pledge for Human Rights in Climate Action, a voluntary undertaking initiated by Costa Rica through which States promise to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and best practices between climate and human rights experts at the national level. Before the Paris conference, 30 countries took the pledge. Governments also examined particular issues relevant to human rights, such as climateinduced migration. In October 2015, the Nansen Initiative, spearheaded by Norway and Switzerland, held a global consultation with delegates from more than 100 countries to complete a multi-year process of building consensus on the protection of persons displaced across borders in the context of disasters and climate change. 20. The most important sign of the increasing attention to the relationship between climate change and human rights is the new agreement adopted by the Conference of the Parties in Paris on 12 December 2015.10 The Paris Agreement is the first climate agreement, and one of the first environmental agreements of any kind, to explicitly recognize the relevance of human rights. After acknowledging that climate change is a common concern of humankind, the preamble to the Agreement states: 7 8 9 10 6 Available from www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/BurningDowntheHouse.aspx. OHCHR also issued an information paper entitled “Understanding human rights and climate change”, available from www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/ClimateChange/COP21.pdf. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx? NewsID=16836&LangID=E. UNEP, Climate Change and Human Rights (December 2015). Available from www.unep.org/NewsCentre/default.aspx?DocumentID=26856&ArticleID=35630. UNICEF, Unless We Act Now: the Impact of Climate Change on Children (November 2015). Available from www.unicef.org/publications/index_86337.html. Pursuant to its article 21, the Paris Agreement will enter into force on the thirtieth day after the date on which at least 55 parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, accounting for at least 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, deposit their instruments of ratification.