“Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.” Hillary Rodham Clinton’s poignant message at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing echoes louder than ever 30 years later, as global progress on gender equality is challenged and growing threats like climate change present dire implications for the enjoyment of human rights. Climate change impacts like extreme weather, changing rainfall patterns, and environmental degradation disproportionately impact women, infringing on their right to life, food, health, housing, self-determination, and more. As the international community reviews the implementation of the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA) during the 69th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69), it is more important than ever to address climate change impacts through a human rights lens in order to realize gender equality and promote women’s rights.
The protection of human rights is an essential underpinning to the mission of most multilateral institutions, including those focused on the advancement and empowerment of women. Considered one of the most progressive roadmaps for advancing women’s rights, the BPfA reaffirms the promotion of “all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all women and girls who face multiple barriers to their empowerment and advancement.” While there are sections dedicated to human rights and the environment separately, the BPfA makes no explicit reference to climate change and the unique role women play in building climate resilience in their communities and beyond. Implementation must go beyond promoting women’s leadership in environmental conservation to include climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts in order to protect their human rights in the face of a changing climate.
Since the Beijing Declaration, there has been growing recognition and legal precedent underscoring how the threats posed by insufficient action to combat climate change infringe upon human rights. The Paris Agreement (2015) includes the first mention of human rights in a climate treaty, stating in the preamble that Parties should “consider their respective obligations on human rights.” In October 2021, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment as a human right, which represents a significant milestone in the institutionalization of human rights in relation to the environment. This was followed by a landmark UN General Assembly resolution recognizing the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment and calling for greater global efforts to ensure the principle is upheld. In 2022, Brazil became the first state to legally recognize the Paris Agreement as a human rights treaty. That Supreme Court ruling has brought critical attention to the human security implications of climate change and environmental degradation, placing climate change impacts on the agenda for human rights and justice-focused bodies, which have traditionally been siloed.
These gains are tied to years of tireless advocacy by diverse groups on the frontline of the most devastating climate change impacts, which have driven progress on climate justice and human rights, including women, Indigenous communities, youth, and those living in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Following a five-year grassroots campaign led by law students in the South Pacific, the small island state Vanuatu successfully led the passage of a UN General Assembly resolution in 2023 requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the obligations of governments to prevent climate change. This became the largest case ever brought before the ICJ, with 100 states and international organizations presenting oral statements during December 2024 hearings in the Hague. The Court’s advisory opinion is expected to be handed down in 2025, which will have significant implications for climate justice and the way climate change is regarded in international law by potentially influencing lawsuits seeking climate compensation from developed nations and driving states to take bolder climate action.
Women have been at the forefront of fighting to defend human rights in the context of climate change impacts and environmental degradation globally for generations, and in many cases, they are winning. In April 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled in favor of a group of senior women in Switzerland called KlimaSeniorinnen, who argued that the Swiss government was violating their human rights by failing to take enough action to combat climate change. The ruling held that Switzerland violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to respect for private and family life. The association of senior women was also granted victim status by the Court, which sets a precedent for state accountability and legal consequences for violating human rights through climate inaction.
While these gains are encouraging, women environmental human rights defenders (WEHRDs) face significant risks. WEHRDs are more likely to be targeted and experience harassment and violence, further threatening their rights. In the 2012 case, “Kawas Fernández v. Honduras,” the Inter-American Court of Human Rights found that the Honduran government was responsible for the murder of environmental activist Blanca Jeannette Kawas Fernández and failed to protect her right to life and due process under the American Convention on Human Rights. While this case represents an example of state accountability for violating the rights of WEHRDs, thousands have been killed with impunity and face risks that must be addressed in the fight for women’s rights.
The threat that climate change poses to women’s rights and their fundamental freedoms cannot be ignored as the world looks back on what has changed in the 30 years since the BPfA and looks ahead to its next phase of implementation. A healthy, safe, and sustainable environment is now an established human right. If protecting and promoting the human rights of women is a core principle of the BPfA, then its implementation must promote the rights of women by taking action to protect their environmental rights. Women’s rights are human rights, and human rights include environmental security and climate resilience.
Key Recommendations
- The international community must meaningfully integrate climate considerations into policy, implementation, and monitoring of women’s rights frameworks, including in BPfA.
- Multilateral bodies and institutions focused on women’s rights and empowerment must prioritize initiatives to advance bold climate action and environmental protection that center women and promote their human rights, including the right to life, food, clean water, work, housing, and more.
- Governments must center women’s voices and leadership in all levels of climate negotiations and environmental decision-making, while also protecting the rights of WEHRDs defending the environment and biodiversity in their home countries.
