“As Caritas and other frontline defenders of human rights warn us, droughts and floods are threatening vulnerable areas in all world regions, and increasingly unpredictable rainfall makes life more difficult for the poorest and most vulnerable. Climate change threatens the right to food and the right to housing on a massive scale. The COP21 Climate Change Conference should really be called a Human Rights Summit. Time is running out, we must curb this trend and take decisive action against climate change now to put an end to this unprecedented assault on human rights”, said Professor Olivier De Shutter, former UN Special Rapporteur on food security, who currently is Co-Chair of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems and a member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The poorest and most vulnerable are the most heavily and hardest hit by the devastation of climate change. Caritas works across the globe with communities that witness first-hand the increasing ferocity of extreme weather-related events and its devastating impact on their wellbeing and health.
COP21 must arrive at a successful agreement. This agreement has everything to do with human rights! The decisions that will be taken in Paris will affect many basic human rights such as the right to food, the right to water and the right to land. Ultimately COP21 will be about the right to live a life in dignity
In the light of this, Caritas calls on COP21 to:
- Ensure that the final agreement is fair and legally binding;
- Agree on keeping global warming within 1.5°C to ensure the survival of small island states;
- Place Human Rights at the centre of the agreement.
Photo: Getty / MARTIN BUREAU
