April 9, 2008

Human rights and climate change background paper

Climate change will have significant impacts in both Australia and across the globe. However, in responding to climate change, governments have traditionally approached it as an ecological problem or more recently, as an economic one.

To date the social and human rights implications have received little attention. Yet the human costs of climate change directly threaten fundamental human rights; rights to life, to food, to a place to live and work, rights that governments have an obligation to protect.

Equity issues also arise in the context of climate change because of its disproportionate impact on already vulnerable people and communities.

What then, if anything, does the modern human rights discourse offer or require from governments when developing appropriate responses to the impacts of climate change? The answer, it appears, is "a lot".

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has produced a Background Paper titled Human Rights and Climate Change.

Part I of this paper considers the human rights dimensions of climate change. Specifically, it looks at how the rights contained in the key international instruments are threatened by the impacts of climate change.

Part II then goes on to consider what obligations are imposed on Australia, in both international and domestic law, to respond to these threats.

Part III outlines how Australia may fulfil its human rights obligations, in the context of climate change responses; arguing that a human rights-based approach is the most effective way to respond to climate change.

Access the paper online at www.humanrights.gov.au/about/media/papers/hrandclimate_change.html