CHR-NI-2016-0001 Statement of Resource Person, Katherine Lofts The Guiding Principles also provide that “[w]here business enterprises identify that they have caused or contributed to adverse impacts, they should provide for or cooperate in their remediation through legitimate processes.”26 Corporations are thus held to a “know and show” standard – “companies must know their impact, avoid human rights infringements and address any potential or actual impact”, in addition to providing for or participating in effective remedy processes via judicial or nonjudicial grievance mechanisms in cases where harm has occurred.27 III. Impacts of climate change on the realization of specific human rights I will now turn to an overview of the ways in which climate change threatens the realization of specific economic, social and cultural rights, as codified in the ICESCR and other core human rights treaties. Although I will be addressing these rights individually, it is important to note that under international human rights law, all rights are considered to be universal, inalienable, indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated, and the deprivation of one right adversely affects all the others.28 For this reason, in addition to the rights highlighted in the Petition, I will also be addressing the right to education and the right to culture. (i) Right to equality and non-discrimination29 Under international human rights law, the concept of equality is implemented through the prohibition of certain types of discrimination. Discrimination is defined, according to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), as any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference or other differential treatment that is directly or indirectly based on the prohibited grounds of discrimination and which has the intention or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of Covenant rights.30 As the CESCR has emphasized, “[d]iscrimination undermines the fulfilment of economic, social and cultural rights for a significant proportion of the world’s population.”31 Climate change may infringe on the right to equality and non-discrimination because the failure to reduce carbon emissions and to adopt adaptation measures will have 26 Guiding Principles, supra note 23 at Principle 22. Guiding Principles FAQ, supra note 18 at 8. 28 See eg: OHCHR, “What are human rights?”, online: <https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/pages/whatarehumanrights.aspx>. 29 ICESCR, supra note 16 at Art 2(2); Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), GA Res 217(III), UN GAOR, 3d Sess, Supp No 13, UN Doc A/810 (1948) at Arts 1 and 2 [UDHR]; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 16 December 1966, 999 UNTS 171 at Art 2(1) [ICCPR]. See also: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women [CEDAW]; Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 November 1989, 1577 UNTS 3 [CRC]; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 13 December 2006, 2515 UNTS 3 [CRPD]; and UNGA, UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2 October 2007, UN Doc A/RES/61/295 [UNDRIP]. 30 CESCR, General Comment No 20, UN Doc E/C.12/GC/20 (2 July 2009) at para 7. 31 Ibid. 27 5