Republic of the Philippines Commission on Human Rights
CHR-NI-2016-0001 In Re: National inquiry on the impact of climate change on
the human rights of the Filipino People
Statement of Resource Person, Kumi Naidoo
Introduction
As the new Secretary General of Amnesty International and former Executive
Director of Greenpeace International, it is very meaningful for me to be speaking
here today. The truth is, although we artificially separate environment and human
rights into different sectors, the that is not the way these issues are experienced in
people’s lives.
The petitioners are people refusing to be seen as helpless silent victims. They are
an example to communities around the world and for all those who feel powerless
in the face of climate change.
Climate change and human rights
Ten years ago, the debate at international level was still focused on demonstrating
how climate change was a human rights issue. Now, we have passed that stage. The
link between climate change and human rights has been established by reports of
several UN agencies and offices, several UN Special Rapporteurs, and recognized
in eight resolutions of the Human Rights Council. Several UN Treaty Bodies have
also expressed concerns on the human rights impacts of climate change in their
concluding observations to a number of countries, including to the Philippines, and
they have started to address the issue in their General Comments.
Just recently, the Human Rights Committee adopted a new General Comment on
the Right to Life which recognized that climate change, along with environmental
degradation and unsustainable development, “constitute some of the most pressing
and serious threats to the ability of present and future generations to enjoy the right
to life”. Earlier this year, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW) published a General Recommendation entirely dedicated
to examining the gender-related aspects of disaster risk reduction in the context of
climate change. At regional level, also this year, the Inter-American Court on Human
Rights has acknowledged in an advisory opinion that the negative impacts of climate
change affect the effective enjoyment of human rights.
The truth is, there is no question anymore about whether climate change is a
human rights issue or not. The petitioners’ testimonies that this Commission has
heard vividly explain the link between climate change and human rights better than
any report, recommendation or resolution. They talk about lives being stolen,
livelihoods being lost, houses being destroyed, children being deprived of the
protection of their parents or transgender women being discriminated in the postdisaster relief distribution. There is no doubt that all these testimonies of human