A panel discussion during the UN 2024 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development has assessed how best to build a resilient, multi-stakeholder coalition to face climate challenges and how they relate to human rights.
Organised by the Council of Europe and Lithuania, the event – “Charting the way forward: Combating the impact of climate change on human rights” – identified key challenges, such as forming constructive and resilient partnerships, identifying priority actions to accelerate the legal anchoring and implementation of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment and how to guarantee human rights for current and future generations in light of climate change.
In a video message to the panel, Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić outlined recent Council of Europe actions to face the “triple planetary crisis of pollution, climate change and the loss of biodiversity”, such as a new department and task force for the environment and a recommendation from the Parliamentary Assembly to “mainstream” the right to a healthy environment.
Also via video message, the European Court of Human Rights President Marko Bošnjak stressed the important role that the judiciary plays in addressing climate change as an existential threat to human rights, pointing out “clear evidence” that anthropogenic climate change exists, as attested in recent ECHR rulings.
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Council of Europe Congress at United Nations High-Level Political Forum
