Collaborative rights-based approach to climate change needed: GANHRI chairperson

CHAIRPERSON of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) and Chairperson of the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) HE Maryam bint Abdullah Al Attiyah has underscored the desperate need for setting out a collaborative rights-based approach to climate change and crystallizing the increasing global demand for laying out an international human rights instrument on climate change.

In a speech before the International Seminar for National Human Rights Institutions “Impacts of Climate change on Human Rights hosted by the Human Rights Ombudsmans Office (PDDH) in Salvador, she said such an approach must be handled through practical means, such as representing the rights of affected communities, integrating and protecting them in all relevant programmes, policies and operations to fulfill the pledge that was upheld at the center of the sustainable development plan.

She outlined that the year 2023 marks the midpoint on the global efforts devoted to achieving the sustainable development plan for 2030 which identified climate change as a major challenge in the goal 13 which is closely related to all sustainable development goals affecting people’s livelihood in each country and continent.

She added that climate change remained a threat to humanity, and although it impacts all countries of the world, however, feeling its impact is mounting among communities which live in fragile and marginalized situations, pointing out that addressing the adverse effects of climate change is a priority for the GANHRI and its members in multiple areas.

She emphasized that national human rights institutions have developed their role as effective and resolute entities in addressing climate change within their ordinary function to encompass provision of counseling to states on climate measures that place human rights at the center of their interests and orientations.