Human Rights & Climate Change

Human Rights & Climate Change

By Dr Arvind Kumar

At a recently held seminar in Geneva, some experts asserted that many of the countries that have contributed the least to greenhouse gas emissions will be the worst affected by global warming, a “climate injustice” that highlights the link to human rights. While addressing the seminar, Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said: “As we take steps to address climate change, we must not do so at the cost of the most vulnerable and discriminated [against] members of the world’s communities. Pillay and others pointed out that global warming would have a harsh impact on many of the least developed countries and particularly marginalized communities, which suffer from poor resilience and inadequate ability to respond to climate change.

According to Dipi Moni, Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, who also addressed the seminar, the worst affected areas include Central, East and West Africa, the Pacific and South Asia. Almost every sub-Saharan African country is vulnerable to a greater degree, as are small islands and low-lying coastal countries. In his opinion, historically responsible countries must not turn a blind eye to the denial of human rights of millions affected in vulnerable countries.

A principal measure of human rights obligations can be through assessing the harm caused to others. There are sufficient reasons to affirm that emission reduction and compensatory financing constitute human rights obligations. Customary international law says it is the obligation of every state not to allow itself knowingly to be used for acts contrary to the rights of other states and failure by responsible countries to take remedial action would amount to a violation of human rights. The impact of climate change would be most acutely felt by those whose rights protections were already precarious, including the poor, migrants, the disabled, indigenous people and women.
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