NEW YORK - The climate crisis is a human rights crisis and those calling for their governments to mitigate its impacts must be protected as human rights defenders, a UN expert* told the General Assembly today, urging States to end the consistent pattern of attacks against those calling for climate action.
"In their struggle to keep control of the narrative around climate action, States are repressing the voices of the exact people they should be working alongside. Journalists, women human rights defenders, indigenous and traditional peoples are at particular risk, including those in the communities feeling the brunt of climate impacts so far," said Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.
In her report to the UN General Assembly, Lawlor urged States to take radical action on climate change to avoid a human rights catastrophe. "People all around the world have been calling for climate action for decades. As they have been ignored, and the climate crisis has spiralled, they have found new ways to organise and advocate, including through civil disobedience."
The expert said that instead of engaging constructively, States have resorted to criminalisation, repressive laws, police violence, and surveillance. "We are seeing a backlash in every region of the world, with the repression particularly prevalent in historically high-emitting States and places where fossil fuel infrastructure is being expanded," she said.
The Special Rapporteur highlighted the role human rights defenders play in fighting deforestation and ensuring the transition from the fossil fuel economy does not come at the expense of human rights, particularly the rights of those already most discriminated against in our societies. She called on States to work for a transition that respects, protects and preserves the possibility of the true realisation of human rights for all.
"There will be no 'just transition' if the current extractive model of energy production is copied and pasted onto the shift from fossil fuels," the expert said.
"Human rights defenders are calling for the change we need, a turn towards respect, protection and realisation of all human rights for all," she said.
Lawlor called for the safe and meaningful participation of human rights defenders in the Conference Of Parties (COP) on climate, detailing the litany of abuses defenders have faced when trying to intervene at the conference in the past, and highlighting the particularly repressive environment in recent years.
"What we are seeing is completely unsustainable," the Special Rapporteur said. "There must be change, and that change must have human rights and human rights defenders at its core. There is far too much to lose."
