Environmental degradation and the climate emergency are among the greatest threats to human rights of our time.
The growing climate crisis is opening the gates to rights violations at an unprecedented scale everywhere, including climate-induced deaths, waves of forced displacement, and economic suffering.
Human rights cannot be achieved for all without protecting the environment. The full exercise of human rights, including rights to freedom of expression and association, education and access to information to participate in decision making, is vital to protecting the environment and addressing harms when rights are violated.
The climate emergency and environmental degradation raise the most formidable challenge to the enjoyment of the entire range of human rights. Economic and social rights, including the rights to health, food, water, housing, and others, are deeply affected by the climate crisis and environmental degradation. Extreme weather events and slow-onset events are threatening the rights to life, health, housing, work and an adequate standard of living, as well as the rights to culture and traditional way of life of Indigenous peoples, among others.
It is no secret that marginalized and minority communities are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis nor that they are often denied a platform providing influence over policies that directly affect them. Further violations of civil and political rights occur when protesting for clean air, water, and safe living conditions is criminalized instead of protected. Environmental rights defenders, including representatives of indigenous communities, experience the highest fatality rates of all human rights defenders, worldwide, with one environmental rights defender murdered every two days.
INCLO is joining the global climate justice movement in support of a clean, healthy and sustainable environment for all. The magnitude of the climate and environmental crisis, and the scale of the solutions necessary require all sectors of civil society on board.
