The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Commission), through its Working Group on Extractive Industries, Environment and Human Rights Violations, joins the international community in calling for accelerated climate action as part of World Environment Day, which is observed annually on 5 June.
The Commission welcomes that this year’s World Environment Day is being commemorated under the timely theme of “Accelerating Climate Action: Inspired by Nature. For Climate. For Our Future."
The Commission is gravely concerned by the impacts of climate change on access to and enjoyment of the right of peoples to environment provided for in Article 24 of the African Charter on Human & Peoples' Rights, which constitutes not only an ecological and development imperative but also a human and peoples' rights necessity, including for future generations.
The Commission further reaffirms with alarm that the climate emergency, along with biodiversity loss and environmental damage and degradation, constitutes a serious threat to access to and the enjoyment of all other human and peoples’ rights in Africa, inflicting devastating loss and damage, making the living conditions of vulnerable groups in particular more precarious and undermining the urgent quest for sustainable development.
The Commission underscores that the fact that Africa bears and is vulnerable to the heavy brunt of climate change, despite its marginal contribution to the actions that lead to climate change, marks a critical manifestation of climate injustice.
The Commission underscores the imperative of the international law principle of common but differentiated responsibilities & respective capabilities and the urgency in this context of those who contributed the most to climate change assume their responsibilities fully and responsibly by implementing climate mitigation measures at a scale and pace capable of keeping global warming within the Paris Agreement target of within 1.5°c, & by delivering on commitments made for providing funding for climate adaptation and capitalising and ensuing access to the loss and damage fund and create institutional and legal facilitation for advancing international cooperation for technological transfer.
The Commission reminds States Parties to the African Charter that they bear responsibility for actively pursuing policies and actions for protecting their peoples from the threats posed by climate change, along with those posed by environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, to a safe environment guaranteed in Article 24 and all other rights.
The Commission further reminds States Parties that they bear responsibilities individually and collectively to secure international cooperation for addressing the climate emergency and the serious threat it poses to peoples of the continent, particularly the most vulnerable.
The Commission reaffirms its commitment to promoting and protecting environmental rights for present and future generations, including by promoting human rights-based climate action on the basis of and building on the study it adopted during its just-ended 87th Ordinary Session.
Honourable Commissioner Solomon Ayele Dersso,
Chairperson of the Working Group on Extractive Industries, Environment and Human Rights Violations
Done in Banjul, the Gambia
