Council Discusses the Impact of Casualty Recording on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, Hearing that Casualty Reporting is Important for Pursuing Accountability
The High Commissioner for Human Rights this morning warned that the environment was burning, melting, flooding, depleting, drying and dying, adding that addressing climate change was a human rights issue and the world demanded action now.
Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that on the current course, the average temperature increase by the end of this century would be 3° Celsius, and the world’s ecosystems – the air, the food, the water, and human life itself – would be unrecognisable. The right to food was comprehensively threatened by climate change.
Mr. Türk said that globally, there had been a 134 per cent increase in climate-fuelled, flood-related disasters between 2000-2023. More than 828 million people faced hunger in 2021 and climate change was projected to place up to 80 million more people at risk of hunger by the middle of this century, creating a truly terrifying scale of desperation and need. Yet the world was still not acting with the urgency and determination that was required.
Mr. Türk was addressing the Human Rights Council’s annual panel discussion on the adverse impacts of climate change on human rights, focusing on the adverse impact of climate change on the full realisation of the right to food.
Four panellists then took the floor. Benyam Dawit Mezmur, Member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, said recent projections suggested that children born in 2020 would likely endure nearly three times the number of droughts and crop failures as their grandparents faced, with children in lower income countries bearing the burden of the environmental crisis. Therefore, climate change was exacerbating children’s food insecurity, particularly in climate-vulnerable regions. The impact of environmental harm had a discriminatory effect on certain groups of children, especially indigenous children, children of minority groups, children with disabilities, children living in disaster-prone or climate-vulnerable environments, and girls.
Ana Maria Suarez Franco, Geneva Representative of FIAN International, said the industrial food system was the biggest contributor to climate change and environmental degradation. Various United Nations institutions had recognised the urgent need to transform industrial food systems: agro-ecology played a vital role in this, and in the transition towards a just system. Adopting binding transition plans that were predictable and included support mechanisms for rural populations and indigenous peoples were part of this. Small-scale peasant farmers must be given the support and training they needed to implement agro-ecology.
Gian Carlo Cirri, Director of the Geneva Global Office of the World Food Programme, said the impacts of climate change were increasing vulnerabilities worldwide – 3.6 billion people lived in areas that were highly vulnerable to climate extremes, accounting for over 40 per cent of the global population. By 2030, the number of climate-related disasters was projected to rise by 30 per cent to around 560 disasters every year. Climate change was limiting access to food. Anticipatory actions were critical to mitigating further climate change impacts on lives and livelihoods. Investing in early warning systems was growing even more crucial.
Pasang Dolma Sherpa, Executive Director of the Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Research and Development, said indigenous peoples, representing 6.2 per cent of the total population, had been contributing towards safeguarding 80 per cent of world biodiversity. Indigenous and local communities’ knowledge, experience and practices were the bottom line of climate resilience and dealing with the present crisis. However, despite the emerging thoughts on the crucial role and contributions of indigenous peoples in climate resilience, indigenous resilience to deal with climate change, economy and external threats had been decreasing day by day.
In the discussion, speakers among other things, said today’s panel discussion highlighted the urgency and the need for action to address the adverse impacts of climate change and to protect the human rights of current and future generations. The increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as flooding and cyclones, coupled with slow-onset challenges like rising sea levels, had a direct impact on food security. Around 345 million persons were projected to be acutely food-insecure in 2023, according to the World Food Programme – more than twice the number in 2020. Speakers underscored that urgent support from the international community was crucial to address this great challenge.
Speaking in the discussion on climate change were Viet Nam, Lebanon on behalf of a group of Arab States, Trinidad and Tobago on behalf of the Caribbean Community, Philippines on behalf of a group of countries, Peru on behalf of a group of countries, Dominican Republic on behalf of a group of countries, Belgium on behalf of the States members and observers of the International Organization of la Francophonie, Maldives on behalf of a group of countries, Lithuania on behalf of a group of countries, European Union, Oman on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Costa Rica on behalf of a group of countries, Mali on behalf of a group of countries, Cameroon, United Nations Population Fund, Timor-Leste, Mauritius, Oman, Niger, Senegal, Germany, Benin and Brazil.
Also speaking was the Commission on Human Rights (Philippines), as well as the following non-governmental organizations: Associazione Comunita Papa Giovanni XXIII, Centre for International Environmental Law, Procuraduría para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (El Salvador), and Centre Europe – tiers monde.
The Council then held an interactive dialogue on the report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the impact of casualty recording on the promotion and protection of human rights.
Peggy Hicks, Director of the Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures and Right to Development Division at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said casualty recording was a painstaking, arduous and essential form of human rights monitoring. It was important to establish the facts as best as possible, and to pursue accountability. The Office’s stringent verification of casualty counts meant they were often recognised by all actors as one of the few reliable sources of information available. The identification of patterns of harm also informed decisions for planning, operational response and policy making by humanitarian partners.
In the discussion, speakers said that casualty recording information was not just numbers: it was the lives of individuals. Casualty recording was particularly valuable as it could provide an indication of the severity and scale of conflicts and situations of violence, and guide the efforts to protect civilians and prevent or address violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. Thorough casualty recording was crucial in many aspects, helping to focus the attention of the international community on the human cost of violence and war, expose disinformation, contribute to accountability, and provide a victim-centred approach, including by facilitating access to remedy and reparations. Providing full access for the international organizations was essential for identification and documentation of all casualties and in order to ensure that human remains were handled respectfully and returned to families.
Speaking in the discussion on casualty recording were the European Union, Lithuania on behalf of a group of countries, Sierra Leone on behalf of a group of countries, Luxembourg on behalf of a group of countries, Liechtenstein, Germany, Luxembourg, Armenia, Costa Rica, France, United States, Iraq, Malta, Venezuela, South Africa, China, Switzerland, Romania, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Argentina, Panama, Croatia, Serbia and State of Palestine.
