In 2019, the Marshall Islands, on behalf of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), called upon the Human Rights Council to establish a mandate for a new UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change. Member States of the CVF and Pacific Island States have since echoed this demand, calling for the mandate to be instituted in 2021 to better protect the rights of those on the front line of climate impacts. These calls reiterate demands made by civil society organisations as early as 2010.
In autumn 2020, the Asociación Interamericana para la Defensa del Ambiente (AIDA), the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Franciscans International (FI), Natural Justice, the Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change, (PISFCC), the Pan African Climate Justice, Alliance (PACJA), and the Vanuatu Climate Action Network (V-CAN), conducted regional web-based consultations with over 150 civil society and Indigenous Peoples experts across more than 50 countries with the support of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Geneva Office. The objective was to collect views on the idea of the Human Rights Council establishing a mandate for a new UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change.
The report “A UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change? Regional Perspectives” channels these perspectives in order to inform discussions on the issue. It presents key recommendations from civil society and Indigenous Peoples on the creation of this mandate, collected through regional consultations across the world, which were coordinated by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and Franciscans International (FI) in cooperation with the FES Geneva Office.
The report is available in English, French, and Spanish.