Introduction: human rights and climate change

Abstract

Two starting points inform this collection of articles on human rights and climate change. The first is that, as a matter of simple observation, climate change will undermineindeed, is already underminingthe realisation of a broad range of internationally protected human rights: rights to health and even life; rights to food, water, shelter and property; rights associated with livelihood and culture; with migration and resettlement; and with personal security in the event of conflict. 1 Few dispute that this is the case. Moreover, the interlinkages are deep and complex. The worst effects of climate change are likely to be felt by those individuals and groups whose rights protections are already precarious. 2 This is partly coincidence. As it happens, the most dramatic impacts of climate change are expected to occur (and are already being experienced) in the world's poorest countries, where rights protections are too often weak for a variety of reasons. But the effect is also causal and mutually reinforcing. Populations whose rights are poorly protected are likely to be less wellequipped to understand or prepare for the effects of climate change, less able to lobby effectively for government or international action and more likely to lack the resources needed to adapt to expected alterations * Research Director, International Council on Human Rights Policy. See the Acknowledgements for background to this chapter and for a list of those who contributed comments to sections of it. Special thanks to Robert Archer for valuable editorial and substantive suggestions. 1 On the rights of indigenous peoples under conditions of climate change, see IUCN (2008). On migration, see IOM (2008). On gender, see IUCN (2007). On conflict, see German Advisory Council on Global Change (2008); European Council Doc. 7249/08 Annex, Climate Change and International Security, Paper from the High Representative and the European Commission to the European Council (March 2008). 2 The literature on climate change vulnerability is vast and raises significant human rights concerns. See, for example,

Adapting Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) to Local Contexts in REDD+: Lessons from Three Experiments in Vietnam

“…A rights-based approach can therefore be useful to provide "benchmarks of acceptable outcomes based on widely agreed principles and legal structure" [8] (p. 23). Article 15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity states: "Access to genetic resources shall be subject to prior informed consent of the Contracting Party providing such resources, unless otherwise determined by that Party".…”

Climate change and ethics

“…In particular, there is debate about whether climate change can be regarded as a human rights issue, and if so how. 32 Two prominent lines of argument can be distinguished: one treats the use of the planet's carbon absorption capacity as a necessary good that humans have a right to share; the other focuses on how harms to the planet's capacities can undermine goods that humans have a right to protection of.…”

Climate change and migration: reflections on the northeastern offsets and haitians in the brazilian territory

“…Portanto, indica-se uma visão sistêmica e multidisciplinar para a compreensão das causas e efeitos das mudanças climáticas, em busca de solucionar as problemáticas que se apresentarem (Humphreys, 2010).…”