Creation of a new UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change

Special Rapporteurs are independent experts appointed for their expertise by the Human Rights Council to address a specific human rights issue from a thematic or country-specific perspective. Their mandate is limited in time to a maximum of six years. They are among the Special Procedures under the Human Rights Council.

Special Rapporteurs can conduct a wide range of activities, including conducting country visits,  preparing annual reports, issuing statements, sharing best practices and policy guidance, producing amici briefs for contentious litigation, receive individual communications from individuals whose rights have been breached, and requesting responses and action from states in case of abuses. 

Over the past years, numerous Special Procedures under the Human Rights Council have looked at climate change from different perspectives. The previous and current Special Rapporteurs on human rights and the environment have also conducted very important work in furthering the understanding of the interlinkages between climate change and human rights. It appears however that a coherent approach to climate change through human rights lenses is lacking.

In 2010, an alliance of civil society organizations called for the creation of a Special Rapporteur in Human Rights and Climate Change. Following that, the Social Forum recommended that the Human Rights Council establish a new UN Special Rapporteur mandate to address the impact of climate change on human rights and study the responsibilities of state and non-state actors in relation to climate change adaptation and mitigation.

In 2019, at the UNFCCC COP25, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, on behalf of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), echoed this call. Since then, many other countries have called upon the Human Rights Council to establish a Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change, including Bangladesh in its capacity as Chair of the CVF and Member States of the Pacific Islands Forum. 

Members of the Working Group on Human Rights and Climate Change are advocating for the establishment of this new mandate by the Human Rights Council, in June 2021.

Briefings

Franciscans International and Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Background Note on the Establishment of a UN Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change (2020)

Statements 

International Youth and Student Movement for the United Nations– (ISMUN), International Alliance of Women – (IAW), and International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics – (IAGGUN), Human Rights Council – 22nd Session, Agenda Item3:IndependentExpertonHuman rightsand environment (2013)