States must take urgent rights-based action to tackle drought and land degradation, say UN Human Rights Offices on World Environment Day

World Environment Day – 5 June 2024

BANGKOK/SUVA (5 June 2024) – States must take urgent, rights-based land restoration and climate action to tackle drought and land degradation, the UN Human Rights Offices for South-East Asia and the Pacific said on this year’s World Environment Day, with a particular focus on land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience.

Climate change exacerbates desertification and land degradation by increasing the frequency and severity of heat-related events, including drought, heatwaves, and wildfires. Since the beginning of April this year, dozens of countries in Asia, particularly South and South-East Asia, have seen record-high temperatures, leading to school closures in several countries, water scarcity, the triggering of urgent health warnings, and hundreds of deaths across the region. The heat has also had a large impact on agriculture, causing crop damage and reduced yields.

“Climate change has created deadly heatwaves that have had a devastating impact on millions of people across Asia, disproportionately and adversely affecting those already living in situations of vulnerability across marginalized communities,” said Cynthia Veliko, Regional Representative for the UN Human Rights Office for South-East Asia.

These weather events are expected to intensify further under scenarios of unmitigated climate change. Land-use changes due to human activities, particularly agricultural, industrial, urbanization, and deforestation, have also contributed to global warming.

“To protect human rights for all, States must urgently and effectively address the human action that is driving drought and desertification by integrating the principles and standards derived from international human rights law directly into their policies and practices – we call this a human rights based approach to climate action.” Veliko said.

“Adaptive measures should ensure meaningful participation of the most vulnerable and their access to key resources, empower women and youth, and respect the rights of indigenous peoples, rural and local communities.”

In the Pacific, droughts, floods, and land degradation are also a major obstacle to the enjoyment of human rights, with many in urgent need of water and food assistance. Most communities affected by droughts are in remote, low-lying atolls that have already been suffering from saltwater intrusion and agricultural degradation.

“The right to self-determination, cultural rights, indeed the very survival of low-lying atoll nations are endangered by sea-level rise and other consequences of climate change. In some cases in the Pacific, climate change further compounds decades-long displacement from ancestral lands due to contamination by mining or nuclear tests,” said Heike Alefsen, Regional Representative for the UN Human Rights Office in the Pacific.

Other islands in the Pacific are marked by steep land topography and highly erosive rainfall. Converting sloping lands into agricultural lands, increased logging of rainforest, and mining activities have contributed to accelerating erosion. The widespread loss of lives in landslides this year is a stark reminder of the need for sound, people-centered, and sustainable land use and restoration policies. Elsewhere, frequent and severe storm surge ‘king tides’ have carried sediments from land erosion to coral reefs, affecting the marine ecosystems that Pacific islanders are so dependent on.

“Human rights provide a framework that can guide policies on environmental remediation and land restoration, which should see active, free, and meaningful participation of affected communities, and leave no one behind, including indigenous peoples and those in remote areas. Remediation and restoration should also build on the best available science and on sustainable traditional and cultural practices and knowledge of local communities,” Alefsen said. 

“On World Environment Day, we also celebrate human rights defenders fighting to protect land from unsustainable practices resulting in land degradation and loss. Their voices should be heard, amplified, and contribute to policy-making.”

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact: 

In Bangkok, Wannaporn Samutassadong (+66 65 986 0810) / wannaporn.samutassadong@un.org);

in Suva, Setita Karikaritu (+679 331 0466) /setita.karikaritu@un.org)   

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