A/HRC/41/39
mobilization. Without it, the natural complacency of governmental elites and the vested
interests of financial elites will lead them to continue sleep-walking towards catastrophe.
Building coalitions
75.
Human rights actors need a more robust, detailed and coordinated interdisciplinary
approach that brings together law, climate science, labour rights and economics to tackle
issues around emissions, mitigation, social protection and just transition head-on, and
provide a path forward that States can follow. Major human rights actors must tackle
questions about the emissions, resource allocation and energy and economic policy that
States are grappling with and where there is a real need for detailed, actionable
recommendations. Human rights treaty bodies and other mechanisms have a role to play in
setting standards for these decisions that are informed by human rights law. Failing to do so
while sticking to broad truisms that are difficult to act on will leave the human rights
community sidelined on critical climate change decisions.
76.
There are positive developments in the coordination between environmental
advocates and human rights actors, including by bringing climate concerns into the United
Nations treaty body system and the use of human rights in climate litigation. There is a real
opportunity to leverage the technical expertise of environmental and climate scientists to
bring detail and precision into human rights recommendations and legal standards, which
have so far largely lacked the specificity that would facilitate meaningful government
incorporation.
Human rights-compliant solutions
77.
The Paris Agreement is the first climate change agreement to explicitly recognize
the relevance of human rights. In it, States parties are called upon to respect, promote and
consider their respective obligations on human rights when taking action to address climate
change. However, the Katowice “rulebook”, developed to guide implementation of the
Agreement, omitted any reference to human rights. 126 Despite growing attention from the
human rights community, States are giving only marginal attention to human rights in the
conversation on climate change.
78.
The human rights community could play an important role in clarifying the legal
requirements around climate action, facilitating the participation of affected communities,
ensuring that strategies employed for attaining targets and adapting to climate change
comply with human rights law and advocating for their implementation and enforcement
through both litigation and traditional human rights advocacy.
79.
It is crucial that climate action is pursued in a way that respects human rights,
protects people in poverty from negative impacts and prevents more people from falling
into poverty. That would include ensuring that vulnerable populations have access to
protective infrastructure, technical and financial support, relocation options, training and
employment support, land tenure, and access to food, water and sanitation and health care.
Women face particular challenges in the face of climate change (see A/HRC/41/26).
80.
Failing to pursue a human rights-focused climate response could have regressive
impacts. Climate action also needs to be structured to correct for current disparities, not
reinforce them. People in poverty are already left out of decisions that affect them and
political inequality means that they risk being marginalized within the climate response.
Bringing the United Nations human rights mechanisms to life
81.
Human rights treaty bodies and others should weigh in on questions that are already
hotly contested in courthouses and parliaments, including how human rights obligations can
be used to define the legal duties of States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions individually
and at a global level, what the minimum actions are that States must take in line with the
126
See Centre for International Environmental Law, “Katowice COP24 outcome incompatible with Paris
Agreement. Ambition, equity, and human rights left behind in Poland climate talks”, 25 December
2018.
17
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