Yesterday, Climate Refugees joined over 200 groups in a letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), urging member states to establish a new mandate for a Special Rapporteur on human rights and climate change.

The call for such a mandate is over a decade old, led by frontline countries and Indigenous communities. In 2019, on behalf of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), the Marshall Islands called for the creation of a dedicated HRC Special Rapporteur on human rights and climate change at the 25th Conference to the UN Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This proposal went on to gain support amongst similarly climate vulnerable States, reaching a tipping point at the 46th session of the HRC in March when a group of 56 states joined Bangladesh in a robust call for Council members to consider the request.

From the outset, Climate Refugees has advocated for a human rights-based approach to be adopted in the pursuit of climate justice and the protection of climate displaced populations. In our recent report in response to President Biden’s February executive order on examining the impacts of climate change on migration, we made clear in Climate Change, Forced Displacement, Peace and Security: Biden Administration Actions That Ensure Rights, although there is a clear relationship between climate change and human rights, there has been no clear human rights focus in international climate change work.

“Although there have been sustained calls by civil society and Indigenous Peoples for a human rights mandate on climate change, chiefly to compel stronger nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and to help clarify state obligations and help develop guidance, human rights work has been largely ad-hoc, making it challenging for voices of impacted frontline communities to be brought forth in any meaningful way.

Indigenous Peoples rights are particularly vulnerable with concerns their rights have been overlooked or inadequately represented at COP negotiations. For example, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in Article 32, safeguards the right to prior participation and free, prior and informed consent on decisions where Indigenous land or rights are concerned, as should be the case in planned relocations of tribal populations in Alaska and Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana.”

As such, amongst our recommendations, we urged the Biden administration “Support Calls for a UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change and Human Rights” because it would:

“allow collaboration with various UN institutions, including the UNFCCC, and other environmental, ecological and biodiversity treaties and conventions, and cross-cutting areas of rights, including Indigenous Rights, monitoring human rights in the Paris Agreement, as well as other Special Rapporteurs on water, food, Indigenous Peoples and most importantly, fill gaps, draw direct linkages and data, analysis of the drivers, interconnected and interdependent impacts of climate change on displacement and forced migration.”

Further, since there is no mechanism for monitoring human rights in the Paris Agreement, the urgency to fill this gap in the face of repeat record breaking annual temperatures, weather-related events that now internally displace three times more people annually that even conflict, and dismal follow through on climate finance by culpable rich countries to help Global South countries withstand the disproportionate impacts they now bear, renders the establishment of a Special Rapporteur mandate more essential than ever. 

The 47th session of the Human Rights Council will take place from 21 June to 15 July 2021.