Country Profile: Cook Islands

The database hosted on ClimateRights.org generates a country profile for all 196 UN member states and the European Union that identifies the legal obligations and political commitments made by each country related to the integration of human rights considerations in climate action, relevant information that the country has included in past national reports to UN climate and human rights bodies, and/or recommendations that these bodies have made to the state.

All UN members have existing human rights obligations in the context of climate change, and the vast majority of governments have already called for a better integration of human rights in climate responses, highlighted barriers for implementation or good practices, and/or received specific guidance from specialised UN institutions.

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(This profile was last updated on 20th October 2017)


Country Profile Overview: Cook Islands              

Ratification of Human Rights-related Instruments relevant in the context of climate change

…ratified the following human rights instruments with relevance in the context of climate:

  • Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the CEDAW optional protocol
  • Convention on the Rights of the Child
  • Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and the CRPD optional protocol

For more specific information and references regarding the human rights obligation of this country under international law, please visit             http://forestdefender.org/country/

Climate change as an issue raised during the review of the country by UN Human Rights institutions (see Part 2 of the country profile for any reference mentioned in this section):

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

… referred to climate change in a national report to the committee;

… will be review by the Committee in 23.10.2017, with a pre-session for the committee to consider preliminary information scheduled in 02.07.2018

Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

… referred to climate change in a national report to the committee;

… was asked by the committee to provide additional information on human rights protection in the context of climate change;

Obligations, statements and reports in the context of UN Climate Negotiations

… has ratified the Paris Agreement which recognizes the need for parties to promote and respect human rights when taking climate action;

… mentioned human rights in written submission to the UNFCCC in relation to the following issues: the need for Clean Development Mechanism projects to respect human rights (2013),

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