Human rights to be integrated into climate change policies

Islamabad:Chairperson of Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights Samina Mumtaz Zehri and Coordinator to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Romina Khurshid Alam have reached a consensus to advocate for the integration of human rights into climate change policies in the country. During a meeting here on Sunday, both also agreed to jointly work to roll out a viable action-plan to ensure that climate actions not only address environmental issues but also uphold and protect the rights of vulnerable communities affected by climate change in the country, especially in the highly climate vulnerable Balochistan province.

“Integrating human rights into climate change policy is essential to ensure that actions to tackle climate risks do not exacerbate existing inequalities or infringe upon basic human rights,” Senator Zehri said. She said that climate change also significantly undermined fundamental human rights, including the right to life, health, food, and water, reflecting an increasing awareness of these pressing issues. The lawmaker said as various studies showed, she believed that incorporating human rights into climate risk management action plans and discourse was crucial for creating and promoting a more just and equitable approach to tackle the climate crisis, particularly for resource-poor and marginalised communities in the vulnerable areas in Balochistan.

"Being a large and arid region in south-western part of the country, the Balochistan province is extremely vulnerable to climate change due to a combination of its geographic features, socio-economic challenges and existing environmental stresses. The region’s vulnerability is aggravated more due to its dependence on agriculture, water scarcity, limited and shabby infrastructure, making it highly sensitive to adverse climate risks, particularly devastating hill torrents, flash floods, cyclones, sea-level rise, heat waves, declining rainfalls and droughts," she said. The senator called for strategies that priorities equality and justice in confronting this critical challenge of climate change for both mitigating adverse fall-outs of climate change and promoting a fairer society with access to equitable access to resources required for climate resilience building.

She urged for well-coordinated and cooperated national efforts that uphold and protect these rights, noting that human activities not only contribute to climate change but also threaten basic human rights. "Marginalised groups such as women, children, and economically disadvantaged communities, are particularly vulnerable, often lacking the means to adapt to climate impacts and facing greater obstacles in accessing their rights," she said.

Ms Zehri said "climate justice" highlighted how those least responsible for climate change frequently endure its most severe consequences. She called for fair distribution of resources and support for at-risk communities to address these inequities.

The climate aide to the PM said that climate crisis continued to affect a wide range of human rights, including the right to life, health, food, safe water and sanitation, shelter and a healthy environment. “Integrating human rights into national climate change policies by recognising climate change as a human rights issue will be a first key step towards ensuring advocating for the policies take into account the social and economic impacts on individuals and communities, particularly those who are most vulnerable parts of the country particularly in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan,” she said.

Ms Alam assured Ms Zehri of her all-out support to achieve goal of climate justice by ensuring that human rights-based climate policy and action plans are framed in consultation with vulnerable communities and implemented at grassroots levels for attainment of the people’s human rights to healthy life and environment, particularly during disaster times.