Climate Change To Multiply Impact Of Human Rights Issues - UN Commissioner

Climate change and pollution will continue to pose a formidable threat to human rights in our era, in addition to strengthening tensions and structural inequalities worldwide, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said at the opening ceremony of the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th September, 2021) Climate change and pollution will continue to pose a formidable threat to human rights in our era, in addition to strengthening tensions and structural inequalities worldwide, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said at the opening ceremony of the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.

"The interlinked crises of pollution, climate change and biodiversity act as threat multipliers - amplifying conflicts, tensions and structural inequalities, and forcing people into increasingly vulnerable situations. As these environmental threats intensify, they will constitute the single greatest challenge to human rights in our era," Bachelet said.

The commissioner added that the biggest uncertainty, however, is what "policy-makers will do" about these challenges.

In her speech, she addressed the situation with the extreme famine in Madagascar after four years of no rainfall; Bangladesh, which reports show will be submerged by 7% amid rising sea levels by 2050; and the Maldives which are already affected by this problem.

Bachelet also mentioned the lack of access to water in the middle East and North Africa, as well as a number of countries in Central Asia which are vulnerable to climate change and hindered by shortfalls in human rights protection.

The 48th session of the UNHCR started on Monday and will run through October 8.