CHANGEMENTS CLIMATIQUES: RELEVER LE PLUS GRAND DÉFI DE NOTRE TEMPS EN MATIÈRE DE DROITS DE L’HOMME

This briefing, prepared by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and CARE International, argues that climate change is the greatest human rights challenge of the current era. It calls for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to integrate human rights protections into its policies, particularly as the international community negotiated the 2015 climate agreement. The document outlines how climate impacts threaten fundamental rights and provides specific policy recommendations to ensure that climate mitigation and adaptation efforts do not further violate human rights.

• Climate change is characterized as the most significant human rights challenge of the present time, creating issues of justice and inequality for millions of people and communities already suffering from climate impacts, as well as for future generations.
• Direct climate consequences threaten specific populations: coastal and low-altitude residents are at risk from sea-level rise and extreme weather, Arctic indigenous peoples face threats from melting ice and snow, and communities in the Andes and Himalayas are endangered by the loss of glaciers and freshwater resources.
• Climate mitigation and adaptation measures can themselves cause human rights violations. For example, REDD+ activities may harm the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities in forests, and large-scale energy projects may lead to the expulsion of communities from ancestral lands without proper consultation.
• The UNFCCC has historically been slow to address the human rights dimension of climate change. While the 2010 Cancun Agreements recognized that Parties should respect human rights in climate measures, the briefing asserts that the UNFCCC has made little progress since then in operationalizing these protections.
• The document recommends that the 2015 climate agreement include a commitment to limit the global average temperature increase to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius and ensure compensation for climate-related loss and damage that cannot be avoided through adaptation or mitigation.
• To operationalize human rights protections, the briefing proposes that the UNFCCC establish institutional safeguards consisting of four key elements: social and environmental safeguard policies, monitoring mechanisms, complaint mechanisms, and opportunities for full and effective participation in decision-making.
• The briefing suggests the creation of a dedicated work program on human rights and climate change to be reported to the COP, and recommends that the UNFCCC seek the expertise of the UN Human Rights Council and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to implement a rights-based approach.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2015). CHANGEMENTS CLIMATIQUES: RELEVER LE PLUS GRAND DÉFI DE NOTRE TEMPS EN MATIÈRE DE DROITS DE L’HOMME. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CCandHR_Feb2015_French.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. CHANGEMENTS CLIMATIQUES: RELEVER LE PLUS GRAND DÉFI DE NOTRE TEMPS EN MATIÈRE DE DROITS DE L’HOMME. 2015. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CCandHR_Feb2015_French.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=CHANGEMENTS CLIMATIQUES: RELEVER LE PLUS GRAND DÉFI DE NOTRE TEMPS EN MATIÈRE DE DROITS DE L’HOMME |date=February 2015 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CCandHR_Feb2015_French.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2015changements, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{CHANGEMENTS CLIMATIQUES: RELEVER LE PLUS GRAND DÉFI DE NOTRE TEMPS EN MATIÈRE DE DROITS DE L’HOMME}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2015}, month = feb, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CCandHR_Feb2015_French.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }