discrimination in the area of ICESCR rights. In particular, this should occur through “courts and tribunals, administrative authorities, national human rights institutions and/or ombudspersons,” which “adjudicate or investigate complaints promptly, impartially, and independently and address alleged violations relating to article 2, paragraph 2, including actions or omissions by private actors.”89 5. Monitoring, indicators and benchmarks: The CESCR highlights that “States parties are obliged to monitor effectively the implementation of measures to comply” with their obligations.90 Finally, with respect to discrimination in the private sphere (for example, within families or in the workplace), States are required to “adopt measures, which should include legislation, to ensure that individuals and entities in the private sphere do not discriminate on prohibited grounds.”91 Possible Impacts of Climate Change on the Right to Equality The right to equality and non-discrimination is of prime importance in the context of climate change. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has observed that “[t]he effects of climate change will be felt most acutely by those segments of the population who are already in vulnerable situations due to factors such as poverty, gender, age, minority status, and disability.”92 Particular regions (including sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, and the Arctic) are also likely to bear a greater burden of climate change impacts on human rights.93 In response to concerns about the unequal impact of climate change on vulnerable populations, the OHCHR has emphasized that “[u]nder international human rights law, States are legally bound to address such vulnerabilities in accordance with the principle of equality and non-discrimination.”94 Adapting the environmental justice approach – that is, an approach that accounts for the disproportionate impacts of environmental harms on the health and well-being of particular marginalized groups, such as low-income communities and communities of colour95 – to the particular context of climate change may therefore be of great relevance to identifying the impacts of climate change on the right to equality and non-discrimination. For instance, Beverly Wright and Earthea Nance observe that: [p]re-existing environmental justice vulnerabilities make it harder for vulnerable populations (whose health is already compromised as a result of existing environmental burdens) to protect themselves against increasing climate change health burdens, such as waterborne disease. Vulnerable populations already living in disaster-prone areas (as a result of poverty and discrimination) are even more vulnerable to the coming onslaught of more intense and more frequent storms.96 30