States’ Human Rights Obligations in the Context of Climate Change

This 2019 report by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) analyzes how United Nations human rights treaty bodies (HRTBs) are defining the obligations of States to protect human rights amidst climate change. The report focuses on the record level of engagement by HRTBs in 2018, detailing recommendations across adaptation, mitigation, procedural rights, and international cooperation, with specific syntheses for the committees focusing on women (CEDAW), economic, social and cultural rights (CESCR), and children (CRC).

• Human rights treaty bodies (HRTBs) have increasingly recognized that climate change threatens various rights, including the rights to life, health, education, and an adequate standard of living, while noting that impacts are disproportionately felt by women, children, and indigenous peoples.
• In 2018, HRTBs showed a record number of Concluding Observations (COBs) referencing climate change. While historically focused on small island developing States (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs)—which received 52% of references over the last decade—there was a significant increase in recommendations directed toward developed countries in 2018.
• The majority of HRTB climate recommendations focus on adaptation (40%) and procedural rights (33%), with mitigation accounting for only 9% of references between 2008 and 2018. In 2018, procedural rights (35%) slightly overtook adaptation (34%) as the most common category.
• The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) emphasizes that climate impacts are not gender-neutral. Its General Recommendation No. 37 highlights the need for women's participation in decision-making and the necessity of limiting fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions to protect women's rights.
• The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has a stronger focus on mitigation than other committees, with 20% of its 2018 climate recommendations addressing this area. This includes specific calls for States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through time-bound benchmarks and to reconsider unconventional fossil fuel exploitation, such as hydraulic fracturing in Argentina's Vaca Muerta region.
• The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) focuses heavily on education and empowerment, recommending that States include climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in school curricula to increase children's preparedness.
• HRTBs have articulated that States have extraterritorial obligations to protect groups from the negative impacts of fossil fuels, including impacts resulting from the export of fossil fuels.
• The Human Rights Committee's General Comment No. 36 identifies environmental degradation, climate change, and unsustainable development as some of the most serious threats to the right to life for present and future generations.

APA

Duyck, S., Holtz, J., & Mckernan, L. (2019). States’ Human Rights Obligations in the Context of Climate Change. Center for International Environmental Law. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/HRTB-Feb.-2019-update-2019-03-25.pdf

Chicago

Duyck, Sébastien, Jolein Holtz, and Lucy Mckernan. States’ Human Rights Obligations in the Context of Climate Change. Center for International Environmental Law, 2019. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/HRTB-Feb.-2019-update-2019-03-25.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Duyck |first1=Sébastien |last2=Holtz |first2=Jolein |last3=Mckernan |first3=Lucy |title=States’ Human Rights Obligations in the Context of Climate Change |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |date=February 2019 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/HRTB-Feb.-2019-update-2019-03-25.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{duyck2019states, author = {Duyck, Sébastien and Holtz, Jolein and Mckernan, Lucy}, title = {{States’ Human Rights Obligations in the Context of Climate Change}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2019}, month = feb, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/HRTB-Feb.-2019-update-2019-03-25.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }