A/HRC/38/21
the adoption of national and regional protection measures, UNHCR has compiled good
practices from countries in Latin America that may apply in disaster contexts. 71
64.
IOM supports a human rights-based approach to human mobility in relation to
climate change through its policy, research, training and operational activities. It has
produced a number of tools related to human rights, climate change and migration,
including the environmental migration portal which serves as a knowledge platform. 72
Those and other efforts raise awareness of the relationship between migration and climate
change to inform policy choices. 73 IOM regional projects also offer direct support, for
example, to improve the capacity of Pacific Island States to manage the impacts of climate
change on migration 74 and to promote sustainable land management in migration-prone
areas of West Africa through innovative financing mechanisms. 75
65.
OHCHR has compiled and regularly updates a list of promising practices related to
migration in Global Migration Group’s Principles and practical guidance on the human
rights protection of migrants in vulnerable situations. 76 These include, for example, the
work of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to address the root
causes of migration and build conflict-resilience by promoting recovery of local agricultural
and food economies, including through climate change adaptation, which permits affected
people to remain on their land when it is safe for them to do so.
V. Recommendations
66.
The research performed by OHCHR, summarized in the preceding analysis,
provides a sound basis for a number of concrete recommendations. 77 Governments
and other relevant stakeholders should:
(a)
Take ambitious action to mitigate climate change in accordance with the
Paris Agreement in order to prevent its impacts from worsening and reduce its role as
a driver of human mobility;
(b)
Ensure respect, fulfilment, promotion and protection of all human rights
for persons crossing borders in the context of climate change;
(c)
Promote and expand safe, regular, dignified and accessible pathways for
human mobility that respect and protect the rights of persons affected by climate
change, including through specific protection mechanisms;
(d)
Refrain from returning migrants to territories affected by climate
change that can no longer sustain them and steadfastly uphold the fundamental
principle of non-refoulement and other international human rights law obligations, to
provide protection for persons who are unable to return to their homes as a result of
climate change;
(e)
Affirm the relationship between climate change, human rights and
human mobility, including through the recognition of climate change as a driver of
human movement and a possible ground for admission in the global compacts;
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
16
See www.acnur.org/fileadmin/scripts/doc.php?file=fileadmin/Documentos/
Proteccion/Buenas_Practicas/9234.
See www.environmentalmigration.iom.int/.
See www.environmentalmigration.iom.int/migration-environment-and-climate-change-evidencepolicy-meclep.
See www.environmentalmigration.iom.int/projects/enhancing-capacity-pacific-island-countriesmanage-impacts-climate-change-migration-pccm.
See www.environmentalmigration.iom.int/projects/west-africa-promoting-sustainable-landmanagement-migration-prone-areas-through-innovative.
A/HRC/37/34/Add.1. See also
www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Migration/Pages/VulnerableSituations.aspx.
See also www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/HRAndClimateChange/Pages/
HRClimateChangeAndMigration.aspx.
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