A/HRC/16/62 (para. 4, also referring to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change); and No. 15 (2002) on the right to water (para. 28). In his view, the legal obligations of States parties under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights could provide effective protection to the vulnerable individuals or groups whose rights were particularly affected by climate change or by measures taken to respond to climate change. Those obligations included taking measures towards the full realization of economic, social and cultural rights to the maximum extent of their available resources, and specific obligations which required immediate implementation. In particular, States parties had a core obligation to ensure, at the very least, minimum essential levels of each right contained in the Covenant, even in situations of conflict, emergency and natural disaster, which they were then required to improve over time. In that regard, the Committee had underlined the fact that it was particularly incumbent on all those in a position to assist, including developed States and international organizations, to provide international assistance and cooperation, especially economic and technical, to enable developing countries to fulfil their core obligations. Human rights standards and principles should inform and strengthen policy measures in the area of climate change to ensure: the effective participation of individuals and communities in all the relevant decision-making processes affecting their lives; that accountability mechanisms were in place; and that access to administrative and judicial remedies in cases of human rights violations was provided (see para. 14 of the Statement on Poverty adopted by the Committee in May 2001). 15. Pramila Patten, a member of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, noted that women made up a large number of the poor in communities that were highly dependent on local natural resources for their livelihood, and were disproportionately vulnerable to and affected by climate change. Women’s limited access to resources and decision-making processes increased their vulnerability to climate change, and climate change magnified existing patterns of discrimination and inequality, including gender inequality. Women and men should have equal access to information, training, financial instruments and mechanisms, and equal access to commercial approaches to climate change. Ms. Patten regretted that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the other two major multilateral environmental agreements (namely, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa) did not have a strong gender approach. She stated that the exclusion of women from climate change decision-making processes silenced the voices of half the world’s population, denied women their rights, failed to uphold human rights principles and deprived society of many skills, experiences and capacities unique to women. She presented the work of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women as a powerful tool to achieve gender justice in climate change policies, and referred to the statement on “gender and climate change” adopted by the Committee at its forty-fourth session in August 2009. 16. Philippe Boncour, the Head of the International Dialogue on Migration Division in the Migration Policy and Research Department of the International Organization for Migration, welcomed the OHCHR efforts to situate the climate change debate in a human rights framework, and mentioned the right to life, development, property, health, food and water as being of particular concern. He stressed that all migration could not and should not be stopped: one should be prepared for the possibility of migration as a legitimate adaptation strategy, and that possibility should be incorporated into climate change adaptation plans. He referred to research which indicated that the largest proportion of environmental migration would take place within national borders, and noted that the 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, a non-binding instrument, had proved effective in those situations. Such a non-binding, yet effective instrument was also an option for climate change discussions. By contrast, cross-border movements would constitute a 6