Earlier this month, over 200 NGOs including ASAP presented a submission to a working group of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The submission calls for human rights protections to be incorporated into the international climate agreement to be negotiated in Paris later this year. Furthermore, it argues that a safe climate is essential for the realization of many human rights, including rights to life, health, food, water, housing, and self-determination. Climate change and some policies meant to bring it under control threaten to infringe on these rights. The submission expresses concern that although parties to the UNFCCC agreed in 2010 that human rights should be protected, this commitment has not been put into practice. They argue that now is the time to fully integrate human rights protections into the climate regime with talks on the Paris agreement already underway.
The full submission presented to the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) is available here.