Human Rights and Climate Change

This 2009 report by CIEL and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung proposes institutional mechanisms to integrate human rights into global climate change policy. It argues that climate change severely threatens rights to life, health, food, and water, particularly for women, children, and indigenous peoples. The report suggests five approaches: utilizing existing UN special procedures, creating a new special procedure on climate change and human rights, maintaining direct Human Rights Council engagement, leveraging human rights treaty bodies, and establishing human rights-focused subsidiary bodies or expert groups within the UNFCCC. It emphasizes the need for increased participation of marginalized communities in climate negotiations and the recognition of a principle that all climate-related activities must respect human rights.

• Climate change directly threatens a wide array of fundamental human rights. Rising sea levels and storms impact the rights to self-determination, life, work, development, and property. Increased surface temperatures affect the right to health and life via disease spread. Changes in precipitation and glacier melt threaten the rights to water and food. Additionally, mitigation efforts like REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) may profoundly impact the cultures and livelihoods of indigenous peoples and forest dwellers.
• Women and children in developing countries are disproportionately vulnerable to climate change. Women often bear the primary responsibility for gathering food, water, and fuel; droughts exacerbate this burden and intensify existing gender inequalities. Children face increased malnutrition due to food and water shortages, reduced educational opportunities, and higher vulnerability to natural disasters and health risks.
• Within the human rights regime, the report suggests that the Human Rights Council (HRC) could request joint reports from Special Rapporteurs on Food, Housing, and the Independent Expert on Drinking Water and Sanitation. It also recommends that treaty bodies (such as the Committee on the Rights of the Child) require climate change implications to be included in country reports and issue General Comments to clarify normative obligations.
• Regarding the UNFCCC, the report advocates for the express recognition of the principle that climate change-related activities must respect human rights. It suggests creating a new subsidiary body or expert group to monitor the human dimension of climate change and recommends that existing bodies like the SBSTA or the CDM Executive Board produce technical papers on CC&HRs issues.
• The report highlights a need for improved participation of indigenous peoples and local communities in UNFCCC negotiations. It suggests granting them specific participatory rights, such as the right to submit documents and speak on par with State Parties, and providing funding to support the participation of indigenous leaders.
• The report notes that while treaty bodies can provide high-legitimacy interpretations through General Comments, this process is slow and only impacts State Parties to the specific treaty. Conversely, Concluding Observations are more frequent and force individual States to pay attention, though they are less high-profile.
• The report identifies potential resistance within the UNFCCC to introducing human rights language. It cites an example from December 2008 in Poznan where "rights" language regarding indigenous peoples and local communities was removed from the final version of SBSTA deliberations on REDD due to objections from certain Parties.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2009). Human Rights and Climate Change. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/CCandHRE_Feb09.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. Human Rights and Climate Change. 2009. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/CCandHRE_Feb09.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=Human Rights and Climate Change |date=25 February 2009 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/CCandHRE_Feb09.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2009human, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{Human Rights and Climate Change}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2009}, month = feb, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/CCandHRE_Feb09.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }