Sea-Level Rise and Its Effects on the Full and Effective Enjoyment of Human Rights

A/HRC/RES/60/20View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A document of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2025.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

7 topics

Climate Change Climate Change Adaptation Disaster Prevention Human Rights Sea Level Socially Disadvantaged Persons Technical Cooperation

What does this mandate say?

11 operative paragraphs

Affirms that climate change-related sea-level rise constitutes a serious threat to the full and effective enjoyment of human rights, including, inter alia, the right of all peoples to self-determination, the rights to life, health, and an adequate standard of living, including food, water, sanitation and housing, and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment;

Recognizes that States bear the duty to protect, respect, promote and fulfil human rights and that continuity of statehood is consistent with the maintenance and fulfilment of that duty, and in this regard acknowledges that the statehood and sovereignty of States remain unaffected and that their maritime zones as established in accordance with international law as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the rights and entitlements that flow from them, shall continue to apply, notwithstanding climate change-related sea-level rise;

Affirms that international human rights law provides a legal framework as a basis to address the promotion and protection of the human rights of all persons affected by sea-level rise and that all measures to address the impacts of sea-level rise must be grounded in human rights principles, including human dignity, non-discrimination, participation, accountability and the rule of law, and calls upon all States to ensure that their responses to sea-level rise respect, protect and fulfil human rights obligations;

Emphasizes that climate change and its adverse effects, including sea-level rise, act as a threat multiplier with regard to the enjoyment of human rights, exacerbating poverty, food and water insecurity, displacement, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and other risks;

Recognizes that women and girls are disproportionately affected by the effects of climate change, including those of sea-level rise, inter alia, concerning the realization and enjoyment of their human rights, and stresses the importance of the equal and meaningful participation of women and girls, including older women, Indigenous women and girls, rural women and girls, women and girls of African descent and women and girls with disabilities, in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and decision-making processes, including the provision, accessibility and mobilization of climate finance and resources for disaster risk management;

Calls upon States to respect, protect and fulfil their respective human rights obligations when taking action to address climate change and to conduct stringent due diligence to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and to adopt appropriate measures to prevent foreseeable human rights harm from sea-level rise, applying the precautionary principle or approach where scientific uncertainty exists, and to ensure that climate commitments reflect the highest possible ambition and the best available scientific knowledge;

Also calls upon States to adopt urgent, equitable, human rights-based, sustainable, gender-responsive and disability-inclusive measures to mitigate and adapt to the adverse effects of sea-level rise, and acknowledges the need for public, grant-based resources and highly concessional finance, as well as private resources, particularly for adaptation and addressing loss and damage in developing countries, especially those that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change and have significant capacity constraints, such as least developed countries and small island developing States, as well as for ensuring access to and integration of multi-hazard early warning systems and human rights-based disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation measures;

Requests the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee to prepare, in close cooperation with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, the Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and all other relevant special procedure mandate holders, drawing on existing available resources and, if necessary, supplemented by voluntary contributions, an in-depth analytical study to review the implications of sea-level rise for the full enjoyment of human rights and to identify in the study its impacts on, among others, Indigenous Peoples, persons of African descent, persons with disabilities, persons belonging to national and ethnic minorities, and coastal communities, while paying specific attention to the disproportionate impacts on women and girls, including in rural areas;

Invites the Advisory Committee to consult, in the preparation of the study, States, particularly those most at risk and acutely affected by the adverse effects of sea-level rise on the enjoyment of human rights, all relevant stakeholders within the United Nations system, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and its country offices, United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, other international and regional organizations, human rights mechanisms, civil society, including environmental human rights defenders, academia, and national human rights institutions, as appropriate, to present its in-depth analytical study to the Human Rights Council at its sixty-sixth session and to include the study for discussion during the interactive dialogue with the Advisory Committee at the same session;

Requests the Office of the High Commissioner to increase its support, technical assistance and capacity-building for States to implement human rights-based approaches in their efforts to mitigate, adapt to and address the adverse effects of sea-level rise, taking into account an age-, disability- and gender-responsive approach, and building on its previous work in this area, including by working with national human rights institutions, national mechanisms for implementation, reporting and follow-up, Indigenous Peoples, people of African descent and other stakeholders, as well as with United Nations country teams, in accordance with obligations under international human rights law, and requests the Secretary-General to further strengthen the dedicated capacity of the Office of the High Commissioner at the regional level to provide such increased support;

Decides to remain seized of this matter, in close collaboration with other relevant bodies of the United Nations system.

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