Report from the Katowice Climate Conference Promoting Human Rights in Climate Action at COP-24

The report details the efforts and challenges of integrating human rights into the COP-24 outcomes, noting that while procedural participation in NDC planning was strengthened, substantive human rights references were often diluted or removed from final texts. It also documents the restriction of civil liberties by the Polish government during the conference and highlights specific policy areas, such as the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform and the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss & Damage, where human rights frameworks were maintained or advanced.

• The Polish government implemented laws and actions that restricted the civil and political rights of COP-24 participants, including a law that allowed for an "exceptional ban on spontaneous protests" and granted "additional surveillance powers to the police".
• Polish authorities denied entry to several civil society advocates based on claims that they were a "threat to the national security of Poland" and arrested at least two peaceful activists in their hotel rooms during the conference.
• In the Paris Agreement Implementation Guidelines for Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), guidance on the procedural dimension of planning was strengthened to include public participation, but substantive references to human rights were replaced with a voluntary reference to "other contextual aspirations and priorities acknowledged when joining the Paris Agreement".
• The Global Stocktake (GST) modalities adopted in Katowice ensure the participation of non-party stakeholders and inputs from UN agencies, but the overall scope was narrowed by removing references to sustainable development or the SDGs.
• Parties failed to reach an agreement on Article 6 mechanisms (market and non-market approaches) at COP-24, primarily due to Brazil's concerns regarding the use of CDM credits, leading to the loss of draft text that referenced human rights and grievance processes.
• The Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform was operationalized with a commitment to the "United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples" and an agreement for equal participation between Parties and indigenous peoples.
• The COP welcomed recommendations from the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage (WIM) Task Force on Displacement, which urged Parties to create laws and policies that reflect "their respective human rights obligations" when addressing climate-related displacement.
• References to labor and human rights were explicitly removed from the final versions of the "Solidarity and Just Transition Silesia Declaration" and the decision on the forum for the impact of response measures.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2018). Report from the Katowice Climate Conference Promoting Human Rights in Climate Action at COP-24. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/HRCC_Roundletter_COP24_December2018.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. Report from the Katowice Climate Conference Promoting Human Rights in Climate Action at COP-24. 2018. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/HRCC_Roundletter_COP24_December2018.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=Report from the Katowice Climate Conference Promoting Human Rights in Climate Action at COP-24 |date=December 2018 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/HRCC_Roundletter_COP24_December2018.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2018report, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{Report from the Katowice Climate Conference Promoting Human Rights in Climate Action at COP-24}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2018}, month = dec, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/HRCC_Roundletter_COP24_December2018.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }