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Eighty-five percent of all people in the world have experienced extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change. These impacts disproportionately affect marginalised and disadvantaged groups, including women, children, persons with disabilities, and ethnic minorities. Thus, adapting to the impacts of climate change is no longer a choice, but an urgent priority. Doing it right will save lives, enhance resilience, and protect human rights. However, human rights considerations are rarely incorporated into National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) that countries are developing as part of their commitments under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The few countries that do mention human rights do so nominally, and not in a way that guides any part of the NAP process. Human rights are “the missing piece” in the NAP planning process. To ensure that climate change adaptation is truly fair and equitable, and leaves no one behind, human rights must be included the process of adaptation planning.
The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI) and the Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) discuss how countries are doing in the research paper entitled: Human Rights in the Process of National Adaptation Planning. This paper assesses the extent to which existing national adaptation plans have integrated human rights principles and approaches in their planning and implementation in order to understand the gaps, and identify best practices, in making adaptation fairer and more equitable. This study reports on the outcome of the mapping conducted on multisectoral NAPs available in English at the time of the analysis (2020-2021). It also discusses entry points to ensure that human rights principles are a meaningful part of the planning process.
This research paper, together with RWI’s discussion brief on Pathways to a Just and Fair Adaptation, marks the beginning of RWI’s research initiative on human rights and climate change adaptation. These two publications are required readings for climate change adaptation policymakers, NAP planners, development practitioners and business leaders, all of whom play a crucial role in formulating and implementing the NAPs.
This research paper should be cited as follows:
Anschell, N; Salamanca, A; Bernard, V; and Aryani, S. (2022) Human Rights in the Process of National Adaptation Planning: Insights from a Review of Submitted NAPs, Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Jakarta, Indonesia.
For more information about this publication and human rights and environment you can contact : Victor Bernard