With worsening ecological situations, conflicts across the globe are also exacerbating. The UN has labeled environmental threats as the biggest challenge to human rights in the coming time. The warning came as part of a global update delivered in the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The council also witnessed debates on rights violations in Afghanistan, Myanmar and Ethiopia. Additionally, concerns over the attacks on indigenous people and environmental activists in the Amazon Rainforest.
UN Rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that changing climate, pollution and biodiversity loss are some of the factors that are severely affecting human rights, while nations across the world fail to mitigate these challenges.
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Bachelet said;
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 of our era.
She also noted that environmental threats have been directly and indirectly affecting a broad range of rights, including the rights to clean food, water, proper education, housing, health and more, consequently harming the poorest country the most.
The UN rights chief highlighted the devastating climate events that have been wreaking havoc across the planet for the past few months, including wildfires in Siberia and California and floods in China, Western Europe. Moreover, it was noted that severe droughts could force millions of people into poverty, hunger and displacement.
Bachelet’s office is also working to present more ambitious climate commitments at the upcoming COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, next month.
Via: Aljazeera