9th Meeting - 62nd Session of Human Rights Council

Thank you.
Excellency, Your Excellencies, distinguished participants.
I hereby declare open the ninth meeting of the 62nd session of the Human Rights Council.
We shall now proceed with the interactive dialogue with the independent expert on Protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
We shall return to our list of speakers.
I give the floor, first of all, to the distinguished representative of South Africa.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
South Africa thanks the Independent Expert for his timely and important report on violence and discrimination experienced by lesbian, bisexual and queer women.
We welcome the report's focus on the intersection between gender inequality and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The report reminds us that violence against LBQ women cannot be viewed in isolation.
From the broader structural barriers that continue to limit women's autonomy, equal participation, and access to rights.
South Africa remain committed to the principles of equality, dignity, and non discrimination as enshrined in our constitution and reflected in our international human rights obligations.
We therefore support efforts aimed at addressing all forms of violence and discrimination while promoting inclusive societies in which every person can enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedoms.
South Africa further welcomes the report's cognition that advancing the rights of LBQ women is intrinsically linked to the broader struggle for gender equality and empowerment of women and girls.
As we reflect on the legacy of South African human rights defender Beverly Titer, whose advocacy helped advance recognition of the universality of women's rights, we are reminded that human rights are most effectively protected when they are guaranteed equally to all.
I thank you share.
Mia, thank you very much.
I now call on the distinguished representative of Albania.
Mr.
Vice President, Albania thanks the independent expert, Mr.
Graham Reed, for his comprehensive report.
We welcome the report's focus on the experience of women of diverse sexual orientation who often face multiple intersecting forms of discrimination.
The report clearly show that violence against these women is isolated phenomenon.
Albania shared the view that all women should enjoy equal access to justice, healthcare, education, housing, employment, and public life free from violence and discrimination.
We also agree on the importance of improving data collection and ensuring that the public policies respond effectively to the needs of those who are often left behind.
The report reminds us that the states have responsibility not only to prevent violence and discrimination, but also to address the root causes that allow such violence to persist.
Albania remains committed to promoting and protecting human rights for all persons without discrimination.
We highly evaluate the work of independent experts and strongly support his mandate, which play a crucial role in raising awareness identify gaps in protection and supporting in fulfilling their human rights obligation.
My country reaffirms its full support for the mandate and looks forward to continue cooperation with the independent expert.
I thank you.
Much Gracias, thank you very much.
I now call on the Council of Europe Honor Mr.
Vice President, we thank the independent expert for the report on violence and discrimination experienced by lesbian, bisexual and women.
We joined the experts call to strengthen the collection, analysis, and dissemination of disaggregated data on violence and discrimination affecting LBQ women and to strengthen evidence based rights compliant policy responses.
The Council of Europe's commitment is concrete.
We are developing first strategy for equal rights for LGBTI people for 2027 2032 and working on housing exclusion and barriers linked to gender expression.
We also draw attention to our ongoing thematic review on hate speech based on subjects, examining legislative and policy measures across member states with recommendations expected later this year.
This work directly reflects concerns about anti rights narratives and the impact of hate speech on safety, dignity, and democratic participation of LGBTI persons.
Our cooperation with the UN partners on Sis continues to grow.
The recommendation on equal rights for intersex persons benefited from exchanges with the OHCHR, the committee on the Rights of the Child, and WHO.
We also participated in a panel discussion around the launch of the Human Rights Council report on intersex persons last year.
The Council of Europe should continue to engage in collective efforts aimed at ensuring equal treatment and preventing violence and discrimination experienced by lesbian, bisexual, and queer women.
I thank you.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Ireland.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
Ireland aligns with the statement of the EU and thanks the independent expert for his report.
We express our continued support for independent experts important work and mandate.
Ireland welcomes the focus of the report.
The intersecting discrimination and violence experienced by lesbian, bisexual and queer women undermines both their autonomy and their ability to live safely and openly.
Discriminatory laws on inheritance and lack of legal recognition of same sex relationships compounds the discrimination faced by LBQ women and further limits their opportunities to participate in society.
Ireland vehemently condemns the criminalization of consensual same sex conduct.
Ireland also strongly condemns the use of anti LGBTIQ plus and anti gender equality rhetoric as part of the pushback against the rights of women and LGBTIQ plus persons.
Ireland has updated its guidelines for the protection and promotion of the rights of human rights defenders to include specific protections for women human rights defenders.
It is crucial that states ensure that women HRDs, including lesion, bisexal and queer women HRD, can report attacks and threats without fear of threat, intimidation, or reprisals.
Independent expert.
In your report, you know the gaps in anti discrimination protections and barriers faced by queer couples in relation to relationship recognition, property, and housing.
How best can we ensure an intersectional approach is taken to protection of LBQ women.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Switzerland.
Thank you.
President.
Thank you, Mr.
President in Switzerland, thanks to the independent expert for his report.
We recall that human rights protect all women, including those who identify as lesbian, bisexual, or queer by specifically guaranteeing their rights to equality and nondiscrimination.
In order to protect them effectively, we must recognize the reality of discrimination and violence that affects them.
It is with this goal in mind that Switzerland adopted its first national plan of action against hate crime against LGBTIQ persons in January 2026.
This plan contains three areas of action, support and protection prevention monitoring and includes 12 measures, which include amongst others, pragmatic measures that can be implemented in the short and medium term, such as the holding of a training day for support for LGBTIQ persons who are victims of violence.
Moreover, the plan aims to include protection and equality of LGBTIQ persons in a lasting fashion into institutional and societal practices through improving access to emergency shelters and assistance to victims of violence.
Finally, as you emphasize, statistical invisibility perpetuates impunity.
The plan of action intends to improve monitoring to determine the scope of violence and hostility and provide reliable data.
Independent expert, what methods would you recommend to state to collect disaggregated data that are reliable on violence against LBQ women? Thank you.
I call on Cuba.
Cuba is not present in the room, so I call on the next speaker, which is the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Vice President, we'd like to thank the independent expert, Mr.
Graham Reed, for his report on violence and discrimination faced by lesbian, bisexual and queer women around the world.
We appreciate your intersectional approach and the recommendations that strive to ensure autonomy and unconditional access to rights.
The Venezuelan Constitution enshrines the equality of all persons before the law and expressly prohibits all forms of discrimination.
This allows all LGBTI persons to fully enjoy their human rights without any distinction, as well as the right to peaceful demonstration, eradicating discriminating practices and empowering vulnerable groups of priorities for our government and people.
Mr.
Reed, we know that in many countries, access to health, housing, and property are subject to marital status or relationship with a man as set out in your report.
What recommendations would you give to state to bring down these structural barriers and ensure substantive equality of LBQ women, particularly when there are resource constraints.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I call on Cambodia.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
My delegation thank the independent expert for the presentation of the report and welcomes the continued efforts to address violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
In Cambodia, diversity in sexual orientation and gender identity is recognized as an inherent threats of humankind.
Our legal framework contains no legalization that criminalizes individuals based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Instead, the royal government of Cambodia has taken proactive steps to mainstream the protection of LGBT individuals into national development agendas.
Our ongoing efforts focused on ensuring safe spaces.
This includes incorporating explicit protections in our national action plans to prevent violence against women alongside robust public health strategies and national strategy plans.
We continue to engage in constructive partnership with the UN and the civil society organizations to address societal stigma and promote inclusivity at the local level.
During our effort, universal Cambodia accepted all recommendations related to combating discrimination, legal recognition for same sex marriage, improving protection for LGBT people and recognizing gender gender identity.
In conclusion, Cambodia remains committed to continuing its efforts toward more inclusive and equitable society for all at Thu.
Ms.
Thank you very much.
This was the last speaker on the list.
We'll now turn to the list of speakers from national human rights institutions and non governmental organizations.
I call first of all, on the Swedish Federation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights for joint statement.
Caribbean lesbian activists from Colombia, speaking on behalf of the trans and LBQ Week advocacy activists.
We celebrate the independent expert reports about Colombia V and the historical report about violence and discrimination experienced by LBQ women.
Currently, Colombia is on the verge of a serious backlash due to the potentially regressive government rising after Sunday's election second round, which will endanger many laws that are recognized in the report as progressive.
We recommend both reports for recognizing the distinct forms of violence faced by LBQ women.
Furthermore, we want to stress the importance of acknowledging the severe damage that digital violence has imposed on our bodies and mental health.
We invite the independent expert to further examineate how gender identity and sexual orientation intersects in the reality of LBT women, including non binarian trans mascuen persons.
Mentioned in the report, LBQ women access to housing and other economic rights is conditioned by the presence of men in our lives, which prevents us from forming our families and participating in communities.
Hence, we end up staying with our parents households, which makes us de facto caregivers.
We ask the mandate to support the Colombian government in implementing the militarized protection strategies that prioritize LBQT women in conflict contexts, to consider automatic report about intersecting realities between our sexual orientation and gender identity, to work closely with the member states to implement the LBQ report Redations in a process led by LBQ women.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I now call on British Humanist Association by video.
We would like to thank the independent expert for his thorough reports.
We particularly welcome his recognition that conversion practices against LBQ women form part of a wider pattern of gender based violence, often driven by family, community, and cultural or religious pressure.
We uphold the right to freedom of religion or belief or for parole, but this right cannot be invoked to justify abuse.
As former Special Raporteur Armed Shahid stated, Forb does not limit the state's obligation to protect life, dignity, health, and equality of LGBTQ plus persons.
When women are experiencing distress over their sexual orientation or gender identity, they should be met with person centered and therapeutically well grounded support.
However, conversion practices have no credible evidence base.
They are harmful even where they take forms that may not otherwise be criminalized.
We would like to remind states that a former mandate holder has already reported that all practices attempting conversion are inherently humiliating, demeaning, and discriminatory, generating shame and guilt and associated with significant pain and suffering, including suicidal ideation and suicide attempts.
Yet the global Equality Caucus reports that only 15 countries have passed national legislation to ban conversion practices.
How can the independent experts encourage states to adopt and implement comprehensive bans on conversion practices and make clear that the rights, dignity, and safety of LBQ women are not secondary to claims of religious or cultural tradition.
Thank you.
Muti, thank you very much.
I now call on Asia Pacific Transgender Network for a joint statement.
Mr.
Vice President and independent expert, my name is Vishal, a trans man from Southeast Asia.
This statement is made on behalf of transgender diverse and LBQ activists from the global South and East.
We welcome the expert's report recognizing that violence against LBQ women is rooted not only in stigma, but also in patriarchal systemic oppression.
As trans and non binary people, we face many of these intersectional patterns through male guardians control, forced marriage, corrective rape, criminalization, denial of legal recognition, and gender affirming services, driven by efforts to control our sexuality and punish those who challenge the traditional gender and family norms.
As a parent, I fear that the systems refusing to recognize my gender will also refuse to recognize my family and my right to protect my child.
While trans feminine people are often denied women center protections, trans masculine and non binary communities are often rendered invisible.
We are excluded because we are not or do not self identify as women and excluded from trans protection mechanisms because our experience are less visible.
We urge the mandate and state members to include all trans masculine, feminine and non binary people in violence documentation and protection frameworks at the local, regional, and UN level.
We call for the immediate and coordinated actions to decriminalize and legally recognize our identities and end all forms of violence against us.
My wish is for my child to grow up in a world where our family is not a race and all trans and non binary people can live with safety, dignity, and full legal recognition.
I thank you.
Gracias.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Ilga World for a joint statement.
Vice President, I'm Christina Gonzalez and I'm a lesbian woman from Medline in Colombia.
I wish to honor the memory of Pamela Rosana and Andrea, three lesbians who were killed in Argentina in May 2024.
Colombia has a modern legal framework.
Nevertheless, as your country report makes clear, there's a disconnect between the promises in the Constitution and the daily lives of LGBT people, particularly in conflict affected rural areas.
We're pleased to see that in your thematic report, you recognize that LBQ women are hidden from the frameworks of rights for women and LGBTI frameworks.
Our lives, families, and contributions to the care economy are ignored.
But this void doesn't happen by chance.
It's also seen through silence when no name is given to the specific patterns of lesbophobia which culminates in lesbicide watered down as gender based violence or prejudice based violence.
We appreciate that your report considers the intersection between sexual orientation and gender identity and tells the stories of trans and non binary people who identify as LBQ.
We urge the independent expert to continue to monitor situation so there's no backsliding on protection and that there's implementation of the recommendations in your reports.
Lastly, we urge all states to observe the upcoming Colombian elections.
Speaker is interrupted.
I now call on the next speaker, COC, Netherlands.
In patriarchal societies as women who are already experiencing structural inequality and oppression, LBQ women face intersecting marginalization for deviating from heteronormative expectations.
State unwillingness to directly address the pervasive violence faced by LBQ women and adopt anti discrimination laws leads to significant barriers in accessing justice, healthcare, housing and employment due to fear of exposure in the absence of legal protections.
Despite the CEO Committee recommendations in the case of Flam Caldera versus Sri Lanka in 2022, to decriminalize consensual same sex sexual conduct between adult women and ensure LBQ women have access to effective civil and criminal remedies and protection, the government has not taken any steps towards implementation.
Colonial era laws are frequently misapplied to prosecute transgender women and masculine presenting lesbians, particularly those who are perceived to be loitering, leaving LBQ women at risk of arbitrary arrest, police harassment, and blackmail.
Thus welcome the report from the independent expert and urge the states to recognize LBQ women as a legally protected group and to adopt decriminalization and anti discrimination policies.
We further highlight the need to capacitate and sensitize local authorities, law enforcement, and all government and judicial officials to treat LBQ women with dignity and respect and protect their access to justice.
Thank you.
Michel.
Thank you very much.
I now call on the Association for the Prevention of Torture.
The APT welcomes the thematic report of the independent expert on violence and discrimination experienced by lesbian, bisexual, and queer women.
We draw your attention to the heightened risks of abuse and ill treatment that these women face in places of detention.
APT research, including the recent global report on women in prison, consolidating findings of national preventive mechanisms from different countries, indicates that lesbian women are exposed to intimidation, violence, and sexual abuse by prison officers and police.
They may also face barriers to maintaining family and intimate relationships in detention.
The APT is concerned by the retaliation and the use of disciplinary measures for displaying affection in prison, including the forced separation of partners through transfers to different units or facilities and placement in solitary confinement.
We call on states to ensure effective safeguards, independent oversight, accountability for violation, and training of prison officers, law enforcement, and other staff working in places of detention.
States should collect disaggregated data respecting the right to self determination and the principles of confidentiality and informed consent.
The APT remains committed to working constructively with the international community on these critical issues.
We thank you.
Mel.
Thank you very much.
I now call on in Sogi for a joint statement.
We welcome the expert acknowledgment that gender sexual minority women rights are conditional and therefore invisible in law and policy.
This is patriarchy functioning as designed.
The experts expose structure enabling violence.
We must protect individual while transforming the environment that product harm.
The experts note that family, community, and religious actor invoke tradition to justify violence, yet the same institution can drive change.
Lasting change requires engaging those who shape belonging and values.
GSM women are cast as trait to family and tradition narratives then written into law to justify exclusion.
We are alarmed by anti gender movement invoking religions and family values to roll back rights, including rising hostility, seeking to erase trans women, libération demands radical intersectionality.
We argue to states to fund and protect defenders and CSO workings for GSM women's rights and ask to experts, how can state invest in community led engagement, building belonging, resilience, and inclusion beyond legal reform.
Dignity is not granted by law alone.
It's secret when people are safe and represent in their communities free and fair.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
We now have a joint statement again and I'll give the floor to Outright Action International.
Paige, I am a Black lesbian from South Africa.
This is one example of our concerns.
Amara is a 23-year-old Queer woman from Nigeria.
When her family found out about her sexuality, they took her phone and she was married with no consent.
Violence continued, marital rape, domestic violence, forced pregnancy, and.
For many LBQ people, forced marriage is a tool to conceal queerness and enforce compulsory heterosexuality.
We welcome this groundbreaking UN report, which for the first time captures the complexity of LBQ lives.
The term LBQ is not used to draw boundaries, it establishes common ground.
We use this opportunity to stand in solidarity with our trans siblings and an alliance with feminist movements to ensure gender equality is a lived reality.
The report sheds light on the colonial rules of property laws, the invisible, mandatory unpaid care labor and our conditional access to rights mediated through relationships with men.
We call the independent expert to urge states and non state actors to move forward.
First, by collecting disaggregated data that sees us.
Lesbian and bisexual women face specific forms of violence.
When our experiences are missing from data, they are missing from policy, funding, and protection.
Second, by addressing what keeps LBQ women trapped, economic dependency, unsafe homes, and the laws that do not recognize our lives.
States must take responsibility for their duty of protection of all women's autonomy and enjoyment of all of their human rights.
Thank you.
Muti.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Action Columbia for a statement by video, Vice President, we appreciate the expert's visit to Colombia in 2025, and we share his concern about the gap between the legal framework and the daily lives of gender diverse persons.
We're worried about the increase in violence and discrimination against people from the LGBTQ plus community, particularly in the context of armed conflict and territorial control by armed groups.
There were nearly 1,200 threats against people from the community last year, and one person every 32 hours was murdered.
We agree with your concern about the persistent cases of police violence against persons from the community, 108 cases last year.
The ombudsman's office has seen a 30% increase in prejudice based violence with high levels of impunity and a worrying lack of complete and disaggregated data, particularly concerning trans persons, which constrains the state's response.
We're also worried about the increase in anti rights narratives against trans people in the current electoral campaign.
We call on Colombia to implement the experts recommendations, strengthen protection, ensure thorough investigations and strengthen national information systems.
Particularly through applying public policies throughout the country.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I now call on the Colombian Commission of Jurists.
President.
Thank you.
We appreciate the visit report on Colombia and we share your concern about the gap between the very modern legal framework and the daily violence and discrimination against the LGBTI community.
This can be seen in impunity and persistent lethal violence which disproportionately affects human rights defenders, particularly transgender women.
Over the last ten years, 42 community leaders have been murdered and many of these murders have included torture, sexual violence, or enforced disappearance.
Furthermore, there are threats and harassment with a view to controlling the public presence of sexual diversity.
Manuel Blane, who was the first LGBT activist in Colombia, suffered systematic threats and a bomb attack on his home in 2002.
Authorities denied him protection measures and forced him into exile for over 20 years.
The perpetrators were not held responsible and his return is not reparation for the limits placed on him.
This shows that violence acts as social control and there's no effective protection by the state.
Thank you.
This was the last speaker we could include in this dialogue.
I would now like to give the floor back to Mr.
Reed so he can make his final remarks.
You have some 7 minutes, Mr.
Reid.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
I'll attempt to address a number of questions that were raised yesterday and today, and I've grouped them together.
One is a series of questions on data collection.
One of the report's central findings is that the invisibility of lesbian, bisexual, and queer women is structural.
Women's rights policies often presume heterosexuality, while LGBT policies have historically focused primarily on gay and bisexual men.
As a result, LBQ women frequently fall between these two frameworks.
Daggregated data is not an end in itself, its purpose is to reveal patterns of exclusion that would otherwise remain invisible and enable more effective public policy.
Violence against LBQ women is often recorded simply as violence against women generally without recognizing the role that sexual orientation or gender identity may have played.
Similar patterns emerge in healthcare, housing, employment, and access to justice, where apparently neutral policies can produce unequal outcomes.
At the same time, data collection must always be voluntary, confidential, and grounded in informed consent with strong privacy safeguards and a commitment to do no harm.
In some contexts, collecting not data is preferable to collecting data that could expose individuals to criminalization or violence.
Ultimately, better evidence is not about visibility for its own sake, it's about enabling governments to identify unequal outcomes and design more effective rights based public policy.
There were several questions raised in connection with combating violence, and the report finds that many gender based violence frameworks continue to assume a heterosexual model of violence, women as victims, men as perpetrators, and the family as a heterosexual household.
This leaves many LBQ women without effective protection, particularly in cases of family violence, intimate partner violence in same sex relationships, so called corrective violence, forced marriage, and violence by state officials.
States should recognize violence against LBQ women within national laws and policies, ensure that shelters, hotlines, legal aid, and psychosocial services are genuinely accessible and train police prosecutors, judges, health care workers, and social service providers to respond appropriately and without discrimination.
Survivors must be able to report violence without fear of arrest, involuntary disclosure of their sexual orientation, ridicule or retaliation.
Reporting systems should be confidential, accessible, and capable of identifying patterns of violence where this can be done safely.
The report also emphasizes that effective prevention requires addressing the structural conditions that enable violence.
Criminalization and laws that stigmatize sexual orientation or gender identity contributes to environments in which violence is normalized and survivors are less likely to seek protection.
Prevention therefore requires both inclusive services and a legal framework that promotes equality and accountability.
There were several questions addressing socio cultural barriers.
The report shows that discrimination experienced by LBQ women is often rooted in broader social norms and institutional arrangements that limit women's autonomy.
Many of the barriers documented in the report arise because access to rights continues to be mediated through marriage, relationships with men, or conformity with prescribed gender roles.
The report recognizes that socio cultural barriers arise from multiple sources, including gender stereotypes, family expectations, and in some contexts, appeals to tradition, culture, or religious belief.
Whatever their source, states remain responsible for ensuring that women can exercise their rights without discrimination or violence.
Addressing these barriers does not require broad social consensus on questions of sexual orientation.
It requires ensuring that all women can enjoy their rights on an equal basis and are protected from violence and discrimination.
States should uphold constitutional guarantees of equality, protect independent courts, national human rights institutions, and civil society, and support organizations documenting violations and assisting survivors.
The report therefore approaches the rights of LBQ women not as a separate policy agenda, but as an integral part of implementing commitments to women's equality consistently and without exclusion.
A number of questions arose concerning an intersectional approach.
The report demonstrates that violence and discrimination are shaped by intersecting factors, including disability, race, ethnicity, migration status, poverty, geography, age, gender expression, and the intersecting experiences of transgender women who identify as lesbian, bisexual, or queer.
These barriers may be further intensified in humanitarian settings and situations of displacement where protection and assistance should remain accessible on the basis of need and without discrimination.
One size fits all approaches are therefore often insufficient.
States should assess the impact of laws and policies on different groups of women, consult directly with affected communities, ensure services are accessible, and pay particular attention to women facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, including migrants, displaced women, women with disabilities, and those living in poverty.
Policies are most effective when informed by lived experience rather than assumptions.
In conclusion, the report demonstrates that the barriers experienced by lesbian, bisexual and queer women are neither isolated nor inevitable.
They reflect broader patterns of inequality that can be addressed through evidence based policy, inclusive institutions, and equal protection under the law.
The recommendations are intended to assist states in ensuring that all women can enjoy their rights fully and equally free from violence and discrimination.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
This brings us to the end of this interactive dialogue.
I would like to extend my thanks to Mr.
Graham Reed for taking part in the dialogue.
We will now have a short technical break before we hold the interactive dialogue with a special rapporteur on discrimination against persons with leprosy, Hansen's disease.
Excellencies, distinguished participants, we shall now proceed with the interactive dialogue with a special rapporteur on discrimination against persons with leprosy or Hansen's disease.
I'd like to welcome the mandate holder, miss Beatrice Miranda Galarza.
The speaker's list will close in 15 minutes.
I now give the floor to miss Miranda Galarza to introduce her report.
President.
Thank you, Vice President, Excellency's distinguished delegates and colleagues.
I'm honored to introduce my report on truth justice and reparations for persons affected by leprosy, a human rights framework to address historic Historical and systematic forced segregation and discrimination.
The report calls on the international community to confront a difficult reality for over a century, persons affected by leprosy or Hansen's disease were subjected to policies of forced segregation, institutionalization, and exclusion.
Families were separated, children were removed from their parents.
Thousands of people were deprived of liberty and denied opportunities for education and employment.
In many cases, they were subjected to forced sterilizations and other serious violations of their human rights.
Now, these were not isolated events.
They were systems of exclusion, often established through law, public policy, and social practices.
The central argument of this report is that these harms cannot be understood merely as unfortunate chapters of medical history.
They must be recognized as human rights violations, whose consequences continue to affect individuals, families, and communities.
Survivors continue to live among us, many with the consequences of stigma discrimination, poverty exclusion, and unaddressed trauma.
Their descendants continue to carry the effects of this historical injustice.
For this reason, the report proposes five interconnected principles for a human rights framework, truth justice reparations, memorialization, and guarantees of non recurrence.
Now, the urgency of these issues became even more apparent during my recent official visit to Colombia.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Colombian government for its openness and cooperation throughout the visit.
Colombia offers important lessons, but also the need to address leprosy through truth justice and human rights.
I observed committed efforts to strengthen diagnosis, treatment, surveillance, and public health responses, but leprosy continues to be a serious human rights issue.
I heard testimony about late diagnosis, unskilled professionals, and Difficult difficulties in accessing health care and social protection, lack of recognition for disabilities and persistent discrimination.
There are women who carry invisible burdens of care, persons living with preventable disabilities resulting from delayed diagnosis and communities experiencing the consequences of historical exclusion.
My preliminary observations also revealed something particularly important.
Many people express concerns that official figures do not reflect what happens in reality.
Women, children, migrants, persons living in remote areas, and individuals afraid of stigma and discrimination are not included in official statistics.
So It's claimed that there's a reduction in the number of cases as a basis for there being no need for national and international concern, but that's not the case.
Public health responses should not be confused with human rights obligations.
Discrimination can continue because People are waiting a long time for truth, justice, and reparations.
My Colombian visit showed that there is significant gap between legal frameworks and the lived realities of persons affected by leprosy.
This leads me on to particularly important question.
As you know, the future of this mandate is under discussion.
Some states may believe that the mandate has now fulfilled its aims, but I would draw the opposite conclusion from my reports.
I would like to point out that as a special procedures mandate holder, I was not asked about the relevance of this mandate.
When we held the annual meeting of mandate holders in April, Mandate holders recalled the importance of involving mandate holders in any discussions about renewing, merging, or terminating mandates.
This is not a personal matter.
This is to ensure that protection continues and that mandate holders continue to be listened to and supported.
Our experience as rap or urs is acquired through direct and daily contact with persons whose human rights have been violated.
This constitutes a source of knowledge which is difficult to replace and in particular cannot be fully replaced by states.
If the survivors of leprosy continue to claim truth justice and reparations as is set out in my report, then can we really state that the mandate has fulfilled all its objectives? My report shows that discrimination against persons with leprosy and their families continues to be very evident.
Many of them face exclusion and difficulties in exercising their rights.
The consequences of segregation and institutionalization are felt by succeeding generations.
So The concern before the council today is not whether leprosy remains a public health emergency.
The issue is whether discrimination has ended and evidence before us shows that it hasn't ended.
To conclude otherwise would risk confusing reduced visibility with having achieved justice.
One of the greatest lessons from the history of leprosy is that invisibility itself can become a form of injustice.
This mandate has helped reverse that history.
It has created a unique space within the United Nations system where persons affected by leprosy and their representative organizations can have their voice heard.
It has transformed silence into visibility and neglect into dialogue.
Over the past few years, I have always claimed that there is no human rights with compassion, no compassion with human rights.
Now that belief continues to be relevant in order to respond to the claims of persons affected by leprosy.
It's one of your obligations as a Human Rights Council.
The issue is not just about the future of a single mandate, it concerns our collective commitment to those who've been forgotten as a community.
The future generations deserve guarantees that there will not be a repetition of violations.
History will judge us not by whether we declared the problem solved, but by whether persons affected by leprosy actually received justice.
I therefore urge member states to continue to support efforts to.
Eliminate discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and ensure that persons affected by leprosy, their families and organizations continue to have a space in the human rights system.
Please ensure that the pursuit of truth, justice, reparations, meralization, and guarantees of non repetition remain at the center of our collective commitment.
Persons affected by leprosy, their families and organizations deserve nothing less.
They deserve justice and reparation.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Turning to our list of speakers, I would like to turn to the European Union firstly and ask you to make comments and questions to the reporteur.
Speaking time is 1 minute and a half, so the EU has the floor.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
The European Union welcomes the Special Rapporteur and thanks her for the presentation of her report.
EU shares your concerns regarding the long lasting consequences of historical leprosy health policies that resulted in violations and abuses of human rights of persons affected by Hansen's disease and their family members.
The persistence of stigma and discrimination calls for more effective affirmative action from states to address the intergenerational aspects and impacts of obsolete practices such as segregation, separation of families, or coerced sterilization.
International Human Rights Framework, including Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, is key for the implementation of a human rights based approach to Hansen's disease in which the dignity of human person support care and assistance are central.
Apologies.
EU continues to play an active role in supporting control of Hansen's disease through research funding, public health initiatives, and international cooperation.
EU funded projects focused on preventing transmission of Hansen's disease and foster testing and treatment.
EU also supports digital innovation to improve early detection of skin related neglected tropical diseases by developing AI powered tools.
Madam Special Reporteur, in your report, you provide guidance to states in international and international stakeholders to address structural discrimination policies.
Which actions would you consider a priority? I think.
See.
Thank you.
I now call on Kenya on behalf of the African group.
Mr.
Vice President, the African Group expresses its appreciation to the Special Rapporteur for the comprehensive report.
We affirm that such practices, including forced segregation, family separation, and restrictions on dignity and autonomy must be understood within the broader context of historical injustices that have affected vulnerable populations and have the impacts continue to be felt through exclusion and intergenerational harm.
The group underscores that addressing these legacies requires a comprehensive, person centered, and human rights based approach grounded in principles of truth, justice, reparation, memorization, and guarantees of non reoccurrence.
These principles are consistent with the international human rights law and reinforce its obligations to eliminate discrimination in all forms.
We emphasized the importance of nationally owned processes, including historical inquiries, documentation of experiences, and strengthening access to effective remedies and social protection measures.
Equally important is ensuring that meaningful participation of persons affected and their representative organizations in all relevant processes.
The African group also highlights the need for international cooperation and technical support to assist State in addressing stigma, strengthening health systems, and promoting social inclusion, particularly in resource constrained settings.
In closing, we call for the sustained efforts to integrate these principles into broader development, health and human rights framework, ensuring dignity, equality, and non discrimination for all.
I thank you.
Muti.
Thank you very much.
I now call on the World Health Organization.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
WCO congratulates doctor Beatrice Mianda Galarza on her report and supports its findings and conclusions, including the need to put an end to the continuing violations of international human rights law.
WHO also supports the way forward proposed to address these legacies, notably through action built around the five pillars of truth justice, reparation, memorialization, and guarantees on non recurrence.
Furthermore, noting that the mandate of the Special Rapporteur is coming to an end, WHO strongly supports the recommendation for renewal contained in the report.
There's no doubt that this agenda remains unfinished.
Work must continue and continue to be documented.
If not the Human Rights Council is supported by its member states, which other institution can give voice to the expectations of fellow human beings whose rights have been systematically violated for decades, if not centuries? Finally, as in the past, we wish to draw the Council's attention to the fact that the suffering caused by leprosy is also endured by millions affected by other neglected tropical diseases, whose burden carries important health, social, economic, and psychological consequences.
Mr.
Vice President, WHO stands ready to collaborate with all relevant actors to ensure that the multidimensional burden of leprosy and other neglected tropical diseases is adequately addressed.
Thank you.
Gracias.
Thank you very much.
I now call on the Sovereign Order of Malta.
Mr.
President, Excellency's distinguished delegates, the Comal Foundation and the Sovereign Order of Malta fully endorse the recommendations set forth by the Special Rapporteur regarding the five pillars of transitional justice.
While current circumstances may not be conducive to the renewal of the mandate we wish to place on record our appreciation for its work and our continued support for its objectives.
We would like to share two encouraging accounts regarding the duty to remember.
The former Leprozi colony of Tang in Cambodia is nowadays seen as a living place of remembrance.
It is a village inhabited by survivors, their children, and a non affected population.
A social worker of the Smal Foundation is among one of these descendants.
The other former Leprosy settlement of Kao on Kolan Island off Macau is a memorial site.
It recalls the 48 years spent by Salesian Father Gaetano Nicosia in restoring the human dignity of the families and facilitating their social rehabilitation.
In order to ensure transitional justice, two actions are critical, supporting the organizations of persons affected by leprosy and caring for the education of children of survivors.
Thank you for your attention.
Michel, thank you very much.
The speaker's list has now closed.
I'd like to call on Syslls.
Mr.
President, we thank the Special Rapporteur for her report which highlighted the continued structural injustice and persisting human rights concerns on people affected by leprosy.
We appreciate the experts view that many consequences of the historical segregation remain present today and the need to provide effective remedies guarantee the meaningful participation of persons affected by leprosy in all related policies.
In this regard, we urge international cooperation for innovative financing mechanism tailored towards sustained long term funding for leprosy related programs, fostering a human rights based approach to care and advancing research in new diagnostics, prevention strategies, and post treatment complication care.
Mr.
President, SSLs have adopted and implement seprosy prevention within a broader neglected tropical disease strategy 2025, 2030.
This strategy integrates prevention, control, and elimination measures aligned with global frameworks and national health plans.
We also align with WHO guidance, including early case detection, contact tracing, post exposure prolyphylaxic, multi drug therapy, surveillance, and stigma reduction interventions.
Initiative that promote early treatment seeking behavior, prevention knowledge, and stigma reduction include community awareness and advocacy programs which are implemented through health workers, NGOs and local stakeholders.
I thank you.
Thank you very much.
This was the last speaker that we could accommodate in this meeting, but we will resume at 3:00 P.M.
With the interact.
Dialogue with the special rapporteur on discrimination affected by leprosy or Hansen's disease.
We'll also start the interactive dialogue then with the special rapporteur on climate change.
We will now take a short technical break before we hold the annual panel on the adverse effects of climate change on human rights.
This is a test for the captioning captioning assembly.
If you can write something, thank you.
Also, can you confirm that you can hear us? Yes.
Perfect.
Thank you.
Ellen Distinguished participants.
We shall now open the annual panel on the adverse effects of climate change on human rights.
This meeting is convened pursuant to council resolution 59 slash 25.
This debate is accessible for persons with disabilities through interpretation in International sign and real time captioning, along with other accessibility measures.
I encourage those persons who require reasonable accommodation to inform the Secretariat if they haven't done so already.
It is my honor to welcome to the podium, Mr.
Folketurg, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, who will make an opening statement.
It's also my honor to Welcome our distinguished panelists.
Her Excellency, miss Patricia, Ann Hermans, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Bahamas to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva.
Mr.
Stanley Kimeren Remit, Executive Director of Indigenous Livelihoods Enhancement Partners.
Miss Maria Ron Balsera, Executive Director of the Center for Economic and Social Rights, and Mr.
Muhammad Hafijul Islam Khan, Executive Director of the Climate Justice Center in Bangladesh.
Excellency, distinguished participants.
The speaker's list will close in 15 minutes.
I encourage all speakers to intervene in an interactive way, present comments, and ask questions that reflect the panelists interventions and the discussion.
The speaking time limit is 1 minute and 30 seconds for all, and a maximum of 40 speakers will be accommodated.
Delegates inscribed on the list of speakers who cannot take the floor because of time constraints can upload their statements to the online system to be posted on the extranet.
No.
Now have the honor to invite the High Commissioner for Human Rights to deliver his opening statement.
Please go ahead, sir.
Presidente, Excellency, distinguished panelists and participants.
I remember the days when we thought a tropical heat wave in August was something unusual.
Now we are in the second European heat wave of the summer and it's only June.
I'm not even talking about many other parts of the world where we see the daily impact of climate change on the lives of people.
The adverse impacts of climate change ripple across our societies in the most pervasive and catastrophic ways.
Food prices rise, productivity falls, all diseases spread in new places.
This annual event rightly puts the spotlight on climate finance and human rights.
Let's be clear.
Without urgent scaled up climate finance, this crisis will deepen further with even more devastating consequences.
As the heat rises, we're entering uncharted waters because today's unusual events are the first in the long line of dominoes falling inexorably.
We should stop thinking that the future will be like the past, only hotter.
Scientists warn that the impacts of climate change can be sudden, chaotic, and ever more extreme.
Storms and floods could combine to wipe out the entire economies of some vulnerable countries.
Tipping points like the reversal of Atlantic currents or the melting of the Greenland ice sheet could have immediate and irreversible global consequences.
When the global economy crashed in 2008, governments bailed out the banks, but we can't bail out our planet.
Mr.
Vice President, climate denial has mostly evolved into rampant disinformation, but climate finance denial is alive and well.
Far from investing in ways to prevent climate chaos and protecting people from its worst effects, we are still pouring money into fossil fuels.
Most of the banking sector has its head in the sand.
A recent report found it committed more than $900 billion in financing to the fossil fuel industry last year.
Huge fossil fuel subsidies distort markets and lock us into the past.
The most comprehensive estimate puts the figure at more than $900 billion in 2024.
Renewable energy is the cheapest, safest, cleanest option to generate new power.
As we saw during the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, it also offers energy security.
But some political leaders are using energy subsidies to win votes and increase their power.
They promise cheaper oil and gas that will reduce the cost of living, but in the long term, they are imposing far greater costs on people and planet.
I have two key messages today.
First, on accountability, who should pay? Clearly, those who have benefited from this historic injustice, and we have the receipts.
The carbon majors database shows that just 78 corporate and state producing entities are responsible for nearly three quarters of global fossil fuel and cement Co two emissions since 17 51.
Since the Paris Agreement, the richest 1% have burned through more than twice as much of the carbon budget as the poorest half of humanity combined.
Climate finance is an economic imperative, and the International Court of Justice has confirmed that it is underpinned by clear legal obligations.
Second, on equity.
Even the inadequate funds that are available today are rarely allocated in line with people's needs and rights.
The economies in greatest need of finance are the least developed countries and small island developing states.
But in the nine years 2016-2024, they received just 17% and 3% of available finance respectively.
Far too much climate finance comes in the form of loans which increase debt and reduce the ability of developing economies, economics to invest in housing, education, and health.
Within countries, climate finance also needs to deliver on people's human rights.
Climate disruption has a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable women, people living in poverty, migrants, indigenous peoples, and minorities of all kinds.
A report by UNICEF earlier this week revealed that more than 1 billion children face multiple overlapping climate hazards from floods and droughts to extreme heat and tropical storms.
People in vulnerable situations need to be first in line for support.
Mr.
Vice President, we need a decisive break with today's failed climate finance policies.
I call on leaders of all kinds to face facts and to act, to phase out fossil fuel subsidies equitably and progressively, to build fair tax systems, including taxes on fossil fuel profits, to redirect revenue from taxes and subsidies to climate action and social protection, and to help those in greatest need to get support first.
I often wonder whether in a few decades, our descendants will look back on this time and accuse us of ecocte or even crimes against humanity.
We need an honest society wide conversation that looks into the long term and takes action accordingly.
All the more so because the majority of people support climate action and human rights.
Sooner or later, we will be forced to act radically.
The only question is how much damage will be done before then.
Thank you, Gratias.
Thank you very much.
Hi, Commissioner.
I would now like to give the floor to our distinguished panelists for their initial presentations.
Firstly, I give the floor to miss Patricia Ann Hermans.
Please go ahead, Madam Ambassador.
President Excellency fellow panelists, distinguished delegates.
It has been said before, but it is worth repeating.
Cids like the Bahamas, contribute little to the climate crisis, but disproportionately bear what our Prime Minister Philip Davis has referred to as scars of this injustice.
This is the essence of climate inequality, the gap between minimal responsibility and maximum risk.
The distance between the universality of human rights and the threats posed to those rights through the necessity of rebuilding again and again with limited fiscal space.
It is our view that we must now move beyond any debates as to whether climate change has an impact on human rights.
The impacts are clear and are part of the lived reality of climate vulnerable cities.
The right to life, water and sanitation, food, health, housing, self determination, culture, and development are all directly threatened by the climate crisis.
Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights speaks to the right of all persons to a standard of living adequate for their health and well being.
Moreover, the ruling handed down by the ICJ in July 2025 concluded that states have binding legal duties under international law to prevent dangerous climate change, protect human rights affected by climate impacts, and cooperate internationally, and that serious failure to do so can give rise to international legal responsibility.
This opinion is grounded in a number of existing sources of law, including Article 2, one of the International Covenant on economic, social and cultural rights, which establishes international assistance and corporations as a legal duty, the UN Charter, the UNFC and Paris Agreement outlining provisions on financial support and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, as well as customary international law.
For the Bahamas, this confirms what climate vulnerable states have long maintained.
Protecting people from harm requires not only national action, but also international cooperation in accordance with international law, adequate climate finance, technology transfer, capacity building, and support for adaptation, resilience, and loss and damage.
Recent studies estimate that developed nations would owe 192 trillion in compensation for atmospheric appropriation under a net zero scenario.
This fundamentally reframes international assistance from charitable benevolence to debt settlement and clearly positions climate finance as a human rights imperative.
Further, reports indicate that African nations, for example, are expected to pay 163 million in debt service alone in 2024, exceeding all climate finance pledges combined.
We must therefore ensure that international cooperation is carried out responsibly to ensure that it benefits states rather than penalizes them.
We welcome the fact that the need for support for climate related loss and damage has been recognized through the establishment and operalization of the loss and damage fund.
However, pledges to the fund currently cover less than 1% of the 100 billion necessary to provide meaningful relief.
Climate finance must therefore be new, additional, predictable, accessible, adequate, grant based, and non debt creating.
It should be complemented by reforms to the international financial architecture, including the more effective use and rechanneling of SDRs, expanded concessional financing through the IMF and multilateral development banks, debt relief measures for climate vulnerable countries and the full capitalization of the loss and damage fund.
At the same time, climate finance must look beyond GDP and respond to vulnerability rather than remain confined by income classifications that obscure the realities of SIDS.
The MVI should be operationalized across financing decisions, debt assessments, and access to concessional resources so that vulnerability and not statistical averages determines where support is most urgently needed.
Through innovative approaches and within our own means, the Bahamas is also working to widen fiscal space in ways that link climate action directly to the realization of human rights, including the right to development.
As an example, the Bahamas has embarked on a debt conversion project for marine conservation.
This initiative will provide a cost effective pipeline for marine conservation, securing resources for the long term.
We have also enacted the Climate Change and Carbon Initiatives Act and the Carbon Credit Trading Act to govern blue carbon credits and related instruments with emphasis on environmental integrity, transparency, and community benefit.
Under this framework, proceeds from blue carbon monetization are intended to support the Bahemian people, including through food security, reduced import dependence, resilient infrastructure, expanded social protection, and investments in a just transition.
We recognize that carbon market mechanisms must be approached with strong safeguards and are not a substitute for predictable public climate finance, conditional concessional resources, or the full implementation of commitments on mitigation adaptation, and loss and damage.
However, in a context where mechanisms such as the loss and damage fund remain substantially underfunded, SIDS must also be able to use credible non debt creating tools to finance survival, resilience, and development.
In the language of resolution 59 25, our task is to identify actionable pathways for climate financing that advance the full realization of human rights for all people.
For the Bahamas, those pathways are clear.
Respect for the overarching duty to cooperate in accordance with international law, including through simplified and direct access to finance, grant based and non debt creating support, capacity building and meaningful representation of countries and communities in vulnerable situations in decision making.
If these commitments are delivered, climate finance can become what it was always meant to be a bridge from crisis to resilience from repeated recovery to genuine development, and from acknowledged vulnerability to protected human dignity.
I thank you.
Thank you very much, Your Excellency.
I would now like to call on Mr.
Stanley Kimeron remit through a video message.
Mr.
Vice President, distinguished panelists, excellences.
My name is Kimarin Olimit.
I come from the Psales masai community in East Africa, and I am a team leader of Elepa, an organization working to promote the self determination of indigenous people.
I will share my perspectives on climate change, human rights, climate finance from Indigenous people lived experiences, informed in part by the Report Guardians of Climate, Global Indigenous People Climate Study launched at cop 30, which provides the strongest evidence For thinking climate policy and finance around indigenous leadership.
Indigenous peoples, though representing only 6% of the world population stewards land that holds significant proportion of world's biodiversity.
Climate change is compounding preexisting vulnerabilities among indigenous people associated with historical marginalization and exclusion and high poverty levels and their over reliance on natural resources.
Climate change is increasingly threatening indigenous people and their territories, disrupting livelihood practices like hunting, herding, fishing, traditional sources, while undermining food sovereignty and cultural heritage.
At the same time, it is eroding indigenous knowledge system for weather forecasting and monitoring, displacing livelihoods and forcing the relocation of sacred and ceremonial site, often causing deep emotional and spiritual straits.
In 2022, Kenya experienced one of the worst droughts in the last 40 years, pastoralism, In the country, lost 70% of their livestock had.
The impact on human rights was devastating.
Access to health, education, food security, water for people and livestock were all reduced to a bare minimum.
The community will take years to fully recover.
Indigenous people are not just vulnerable to impacts of climate change, but also to unintended consequences of response measures.
A significant portion of climate responses are land based, often occasioning associated concern on land rights and access to benefits.
Although indigenous money territories store vast carbon stocks and provide globally significant ecosystem services, indigenous people receive less than 1% of climate finance directly.
Available climate funds for indigenous people are often short term in lifespan, narrow scope in terms of application, small in size, and are characterized by unfriendly access modalities.
Ultimately, these realities, negate the modest gains where they do exist.
Indigenous will continue to struggle with the efforts to directly access climate financing under a green climate fund, despite a very robust indigenous people policy that commits to enhance access.
By contrast, indigenous led funds, though modest in size, have already moved US $30 million to over 2000 indigenous projects with a strong ecological and social returns.
This remain vastly under resourced relative to their needs.
Persistent structural barriers, especially financing, gaps, lack of recognition in national and global policy, and limited technical support continue to constrain scaling.
Indigenous women and youth are force multipliers and lead some of the most unique and effective innovation and adaptation mitigation initiatives.
Yet climate finance mechanisms overwhelmingly overlook them, despite the high return on small grants, dedicated funding windows and decision making, seats are recommended as immediate reforms.
Mr.
Vice President, Indigenous people stewardship is a planetary stabilizer.
Indigenous people led climate action is delivering measurable results in adaptation, mitigation, and resilience.
Indigenous people territories are essential global carbon sinks and buffers against climate extremes.
When their tenure rights are secure, ecosystem remain intact and emissions are reduced.
But when projects bypass indigenous people's rights, conflict increases, emission reduction efforts stall or collapse.
Projects incur higher financial and ecological cost, communities experience disposition, violence, or displacement.
Climate finance, carbon markets, and nature based solutions that bypass indigenous governance structures are not merely unjust, they are also ineffective.
Self determined solutions are the most durable and scalable.
Indigenous people led and design approaches, scale better, deliver sustained impacts, strengthen both ecosystems and governance when backed by appropriate finance and recognition.
They often outperform external interventions in both climate and social outcomes.
Indigenous governance models protect critical carbon sinks, maintain biodiversity, strengthen local economies, enhance long term resilience, and scale successfully across regions.
Indigenous people must be partners and implementers and not just beneficiaries.
Indigenous peoples have called for at least 25% of global climate finance to be directed to them by 2027.
This would require capitalizing indigenous governed funds, enabling low barrier application, multi year co funding, seats for indigenous people in finance, decision making arrangements, and public scoreecards tracking direct finance flows.
If implemented, these would represent the single most important structural reform in climate finance this decade.
These would include the establishment of ring fence finance funding lines for indigenous co production.
Let me conclude with a call to action.
First, enable the full and effective participation and representation of indigenous people in all climate related decisions through robust application of human rights based approaches, enabled through free prior and informed consent and community protocols.
Also, reform climate finance to effectively address inherent constraints for indigenous people, including minimizing intermediaries, enhancing access to information of this funding arrangement, expanding the range of thematic focus of refinancing, supporting safeguards beyond that do no harm to actually do good beyond the small grants closet of indigenous people, and enlarging the envelope of the funding.
Also, ensure the fund for responding to loss and damage provides direct support to indigenous people's organizations, including for food, security, and resilience.
Finally, ensure that the forthcoming UN Secretary-General report on climate finance and human rights meaningfully reflect the realities and priorities of indigenous people and grateful for the opportunity and for listening to me.
Thank you.
Michel, thank you very much.
I would now like to call on miss Maria Ron Balcra.
Please go ahead, Madam.
Mr.
Vice President, Hi Commissioner, distinguished panelists and delegates.
Thank you very much for the invitation.
Climate finance is not just about money, it is about power, who pays, who receives, and who decides.
These questions are shaped by a long history of colonial exploitation, unequal governance and corporate impunity.
Today, I will make four points.
First, climate finance is no longer a matter of charity or political will.
It is a legal obligation.
Second, the current system is failing on quantity, quality, equity, and governance.
Third, rights based approaches show us what works.
Fourth, there are concrete pathways to build a fairer system.
The urgency could not be greater.
We are all feeling it as some more than others.
Since 2008, extreme weather disasters have displaced people more than 359 million times.
Nearly half of humanity, three point billion people already live in highly climate vulnerable areas.
The impacts are profoundly unequal.
Women account for around 80% of climate disaster displacement, while indigenous peoples who protect many of the world's most important ecosystems receive barely 1% of climate finance.
The climate crisis does not create inequality.
It exposed does not only create inequality, but it exposes and deepens inequalities already embedded in our economic systems.
At the Center for Economic and Social Rights, we use human rights to build fairer and more sustainable economies.
A human rights lens shift the conversation from charity to justice.
It helps us identify who owes what to whom, grants transparency and accountability in law and places affected communities at the center of decision making.
This panel seeks to clarify states obligations and the legal landscape has shifted decisively.
In July 2025, the ICA confirmed that developed states have a legally binding obligation to provide climate finance under international law.
Earlier that year, the Inter American Court for Human Rights reinforced these obligations, highlighting progressive taxation and measures against tax abuse, corruption, and illicit financial flows as important tools for international cooperation.
These decisions built on existing obligation under the International Covenant on economic, social and cultural rights to mobilize the maximum available resources and to cooperate internationally.
Yet, despite these advances, the climate finance system remains deeply inadequate.
First, on quantity, around 1.5 trillion float in 2023, while annual needs are estimated at more than four times that amount by 2030.
The new collective finance goal agreed in Baku remains far below what developing countries requested.
Second, on quantity, too much climate finance arrives at debt.
Many countries already spend far more servicing debt than responding to the climate impact.
Third, on equity.
Resources rarely reach those most affected.
Indigenous peoples, local communities, and women's organization remain systematically underfunded.
Fourth, on governance, fossil fuel subsidies continue to dwarf climate finance commitments while complex and opaque processes prevent communities from accessing resources directly.
To understand these failures, we must look at debt and tax, the two factors that determine whether governments have the fiscal space to respond to the climate crisis.
High income countries bear overwhelming responsibility for historical emissions, yet many lower income countries remain trapped in debt and excluded from decision making power.
At the same time, hundreds of billions of dollars are lost annually through cross border tax abuse, resources that could fund adaptation, loss and damage, and a just transition.
Climate finance injustice is not accidental, it is systemic.
Addressing it requires not only transferring resources, but redistributing power through a reparative and rights based approach.
The good news is that solutions already exist.
Across the world, indigenous funds, community resource governance initiatives, and locally driven adaptation programs are delivering stronger and more sustainable outcomes because they place decision making power in the hands of affected communities.
The lesson is clear, direct access, gender responsive budgeting, free prior and informed consent, and meaningful accountability are not optional.
They are essential.
CSR identifies four priorities for reform.
First, scale up climate finance through progressive taxation and the phase out of fossil fuel subsidies.
Second, improve quality by shifting from loans to grants and providing debt relief after climate disasters.
Third, prioritize adaptation and loss of damage, particularly for women led and indigenous led initiatives.
Fourth, and the reform of the multilateral development banks so they serve people and planet rather than primarily the risking private investment.
Let me close with three concrete asks of this council.
First, name the obligation.
The Secretary-General report to the 63rd session of this council should reflect that adequate and equitable climate finance is now a binding human rights duty, affirmed both by the ICA and the Inter American Court and others.
Second, set the standard, make a human rights based approach the norm grounded in transparency, participation, accountability, Three, prior and informed consent and direct access for affected communities.
Third, expand fiscal space justly.
Champion measures that tax polluters, canceled unjust debt, curb illicit financial flows, and embed a reparation dimension in climate finance, redistributing both money and power.
The courts have clarified the law.
Communities have demonstrated the solutions.
The fiscal tools already exist.
What remains is the political will to turn knowledge into action and action into justice.
Thank you.
Chars Thank you very much.
I would now like to give the floor to Mr.
Mohammed Hafijulzlam Khan.
You have the floor, sir.
Honorable Mr.
Vice Chair, distinguished panelists, excellencies and representatives.
It is both an honor and a profound responsibility to address this council on the urgent need for the human rights based approaches to climate finance.
I'm from Bangladesh, one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change.
However, I do speak for the millions across the 44 least developing countries whose life, livelihoods, and the future is shaped by a crisis.
They did almost nothing to the cause of climate change.
However, every morning, communities across these nations wake up with uncertainties, whether the next flood will wash away their homesteads, whether the next cyclone will destroy their harvest, or whether the next tidal surge will shallow the lands their families have cultivated for the generations.
Climate change is not an abstract policy did now.
It is a daily as on the rise to life, food, water, health, housing, and the dignity.
Climate finance must therefore be a financial mechanism.
It is the legal obligation.
I do recall the commitments undertaken by the developed country parties pursuant to Article 4 0.3 of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, which was reaffirmed by the Article 9 of the Parisic Ren in 2015 to provide new additional, adequate and predictable financial resources to support vulnerable developing countries who are facing the adverse impacts of climate change.
Therefore, the responsibility is not merely a political commitment, It is increasingly recognized binding obligation.
The advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice clearly clarified that the states that the states obligation to deal with the climate change impacts and vulnerabilities and violation of these state obligations raises to the legal consequences, including cessation, guarantees of non repeation and full reparation of satisfaction.
We know that subsequently the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution which reinforced these state obligations, substantially strengthened the normative foundation for the enhanced climate finance.
Colleagues at Cop 1029, developed countries agreed and committed for $300 billion annually by 2035.
Yet the earlier commitment for $100 billion in Copenhagen was never fully honored.
And much of what was reported consisted of loans rather than grants.
Countries that contributed least to the global emissions are being asked to take loan simply to cope up with the vulnerabilities and impacts associated with climate change.
Debt based climate finance is not the solidarity.
It is compounding harm.
This inequity is deepened by it equation.
Climate finance remains concentrated in mitigation, while adaptation receives disproportionately small share and support for loss and damage remains severely limited despite persistent calls for dedicated ground based resources.
Colleagues, we know that fund for responding loss and damage, which was established at Cop 27, which is now operationalized with very limited resources, that is around $766 million is totally inadequate.
It must be capitalized commensately, and the modalities we need for direct budget support and community from the old level should get the opportunity to take part in the decision making processes.
A further obstacle is the absence of a shared authoritative definition of climate finance.
Divergent report reporting methodologies create opportunities for double accounting, misreporting and dilution of commitments, undermining transparency and accountability.
Binding definitional criteria are real and essential precondition for meaningful accountability and transparency.
Al, we know the Mata Work Program agreed at cop 30 is a really valuable opportunity to develop coherent definitional standards, improve access modalities, and end it right based participatory framework in national financial mechanisms to support the vulnerable communities.
The boys of frontline communities, coastal populations, women, indigenous peoples, marginalized groups must be meaningfully integrated into governance structures.
Not merely acknowledged in the preambola paragraphs.
This council bears the authority and responsibility to act now.
I call upon it to formally endorse the advisory opinion of the Internal Court of Justice as a legal basis for climate finance obligations to demand that places be translated into transparent, accessible, and grant based flows, and to hold all the financial actors to enforceable with accountability standards.
The communities I do represent cannot wait while architectures are gradually refined.
The climate crisis does not pause for procedural deliberation.
Time for charity has passed.
Climate finance is a right, not a matter of charity.
This is the time for legal accountability.
I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all the participants, both in person and online.
I thank you.
Gras.
Thank you very much.
Excellencies, esteemed participants.
We'll now proceed with the first segment of the list of speakers.
All interventions from the floor are limited to 1 minute and 30 seconds.
The speaker's list is now closed.
I give the floor to the European Union.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
The EU welcomes today's dialogue.
Climate change poses a serious threat to human rights as affirmed by ICJ's advisory opinion stating that adverse effects of climate change can severely impair the enjoyment of human rights.
EU therefore strongly supports a human rights based approach to climate action.
Growing frequency and intensity of heatwaves and droughts globally underscores the urgency of accelerating transition away from fossil fuels to keep the 1.5 degree within reach.
Transition must be just inclusive and promote a human rights based approach.
As world's largest contributor of climate finance, EU remains committed to supporting developing countries and communities that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change in both mitigation and adaptation efforts.
In 2024, our total climate finance contribution amounted to nearly 43 billion euros that were used to support developing countries in combating climate change and adapting to its impacts.
Welcome NCQG's decision and call on all actors in line with evolving responsibilities and capabilities to work together to scale up financing for climate action from all sources, in particular, mobilization of private finance in developing countries.
A question to the panelists, what concrete measures have proven most effective in ensuring that increased climate finance reaches the communities most affected while also advancing human rights based approach.
I thank you.
Was Grass.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Latvia on behalf of a group of countries.
Mr.
Vice President, distinguished panelists.
I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the Nordic Baltic states.
The importance of urgent global action on climate change cannot be denied.
The adverse impact of climate change pose a serious risk to the enjoyment of human rights globally.
Science is clear, we must act faster on mitigation and strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity.
In the global response to climate change and a just inclusive green transition, it is crucial to facilitate meaningful participation and protection of those living at the front line of climate change, including indigenous peoples, women, children, and persons in vulnerable situations and to fully acknowledge the important role of environmental and indigenous human rights defenders.
The Nordic and Baltic states recognize that climate finance is critical to supporting the green transition.
We remain committed to working with all actors to enhance the scale and accessibility of climate finance, reflecting our steadfast commitment to climate goals, environmental integrity, and human rights.
We call for strengthened global cooperation on shared solutions and transformative approaches to mobilize climate finance for human rights based climate action.
I thank you.
Thank you very much.
I now call on the United Nations Population Fund on behalf of a group of UN agencies.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
This statement is delivered on behalf of UNFPA and UN women.
The climate crisis is a profound threat to human rights.
Without ambitious rights aligned investment, it will continue to devastate lives and undermine gender equality and sustainable development.
Climate change acts as a risk multiplier, exacerbating assisting inequalities, disproportionately harming women and girls, indigenous peoples, and marginalized communities.
Yet the global financing is woefully insufficient.
Only 2.3% of climate finance principally supports gender equality.
Financial flows to CTS and LDCs remain inequitable despite these nations bearing the greatest impact of a crisis they did not create.
Reliance on debt creating loans over grant based finance traps vulnerable countries, limiting their capacity to protect their populations.
Climate justice demands a transformation of the global climate finance architecture.
The recent UN General Assembly resolution supporting the International Court of Justice advisory opinion mandates that climate policies safeguard fundamental rights, including life, health, and bodily autonomy.
We must prioritize people centered, gender responsive and rights based finance.
This includes operationalizing the fund for responding to loss and damage, will transparency, accountability, as well as the provision of debt relief grant and direct funding of local actors, women, youth, and indigenous people, whose meaningful participation is essential for equitable transformative quiet climate action.
I thank you.
Thank you very much.
I now call on the distinguished representative of Kenya on behalf of the African group.
Mr.
Vice President, I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the African group.
The African group thanks the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for convening this important panel discussion on climate finance and human rights.
Africa continues to bear a disproportionate burden of the adverse impacts of climate change despite contributing the least to global emissions.
Drought, flats, food insecurity, environmental deprivation are increasingly undermining the enjoyment of environmental rights, including the right to life, health, food, water, and development.
The African group remains concerned that climate finance remains insufficient, inequitable, and difficult to access.
Many developing countries continue to face significant barriers while adaptation and loss and damage financing remains critically underfunded.
We therefore call for the fulfillment of international climate finance commitments through predictable, adequate, and accessible financing with greater emphasis on grants, adaptation, technology transfer and capacity building Adré the climate crisis requires a strengthened global commitment to adequate climate financing that supports developing countries, particularly the ones vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change and leaves no one behind.
It must be guided by the principles of equity, transparency and accountability.
We emphasize that climate justice is ineterable for human rights.
Climate action must be firmly anchored in the UN FCCC and the Paris Agreement and implemented in accordance with the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
Thank you.
Jessica, thank you very much.
I call on Senegal on behalf of a group of countries Vice President.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
It is my honor to make this statement on behalf of the delegations of six countries beneficiary of the fund for the SIDs and least developed countries for this session.
We welcome the holding of this annual debate on the strengthening of climate finance.
The SID and least developed countries are most exposed to sea level rise, coastal erosion, food insecurity and forced displacement, as well as the increase of vulnerabilities.
In this context, a just transition requires predictable and accessible financing covering adaptation on loss and damage, technology transfer and adaptation, as well as debt relief.
We recall that we uphold the principle of equity and shared but differentiated responsibilities, and in this context, the industrialized countries have a historic responsibilities and must therefore step up their efforts to ensure a just and equitable energy transition and uphold our economies.
The International Court of Justice has also promoted equity and justice for future generations for our groups of countries.
We therefore call upon industrialized countries to live up and strengthen their financial commitments in line with the Framework Convention and to the Paris Agreement.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Australia on behalf of a group of countries.
Excuse me.
Thank you, Vice President.
I am pleased to deliver this joint statement on behalf of a group of Pacific Island Forum members.
Climate change affects every nation, but our region is at the front line of the climate crisis.
For those who have contributed the least to climate change, it is not a distant warning but a daily reality.
The international community must respond to the human rights threats posed by climate change.
This demands strong action from all of us.
Welcome the landmark unanimous advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, a Pacific led initiative, which has an important contribution to make in relation to the obligations of all states in respect of climate change.
Through the climate pre cop 31, the Special Leaders event in Fiji and Tuvalu, and Australia's role as President of negotiations for Cop 31, the Pacific will continue to play a critical role in climate negotiations this year.
We welcome Tuvalus co hosting with Ireland of the 2027 second Conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels and look forward to the outcomes report of the Santa Marta Conference.
Climate action should uphold and promote human rights, particularly for those most vulnerable.
We call on all states to accelerate ambitious mitigation to meet UNF AAC and Paris Agreement goals to keep 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach, to transition away from fossil fuels, and to mobilize sustained accessible climate finance, especially for adaptation, loss and damage, and addressing debt sustainability.
Thank you.
Chelsea Glass.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Bangladesh on behalf of a group of countries.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
Mr.
Vice President, I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the Philippines, Vietnam, and Bangladesh.
We thank the panelists for their valuable insights.
Climate change represents one of the greatest threats to the full enjoyment of human rights.
Its adverse effects directly and disproportionately impact developing countries, particularly the LDCs and seeds, despite their least contribution to the global emission.
We remain deeply concerned of the significant and widening gaps in climate finance for adaptation, mitigation, and responding to loss and damage.
These gaps significantly constrain the capacity of the developing countries to protect lives, livelihoods, and human rights.
We therefore urge developed countries to fully deliver on their commitments under the UNF C and the Paris Agreement by scaling up climate finance, technology transfer, and capacity building in accordance with the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
We also expressed deep concern that climate induced displacement and migration undermines the ability of the climate vulnerable countries to pursue development aspirations as well as adaptation pathways.
At a time of multiple crises, multilateralism and international solidarity remains indispensable for mobilizing climate finance at the scale required and ensuring a just, equitable and human rights based response to climate change.
I thank you.
Yes.
Thank you very much.
I now call on the Philippines on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Asean.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the members of Asean.
Asean recognizes that biodiversity loss and environmental degradation, including from climate change are among the most pressing and serious threats to the ability of present and future generations to enjoy fundamental human rights.
We reaffirm that climate finance is a key enabler for ambitious climate action in developing countries, particularly in our region.
We reiterate the urgent need for scaled up, predictable, affordable, accessible, and transparent climate finance flows from both public and private sources aligned with nationally determined priorities and needs.
Asean underscores the need for highly concessional financing and innovative sources of finance, as well as harmonized, simplified just in direct access procedures to international climate funds and accelerated disbursements to address the mitigation and adaptation of Asean member states.
Climate finance should be designed to increase ambition, equity, and long term sustainability and avoid exacerbating existing debt burdens.
Asean recalls its regional efforts, including the Asean Climate Change Strategic action plan to 2025 to 2030, the Asean Working Group on climate change, as well as the ongoing establishment of the Asean Center for Climate Change.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
Michelle Gracias.
Thank you very much.
I now call on The Dominican Republic on behalf of a group of countries.
Thank you, Vice President.
Vice President, I have the honor of delivering this statement on behalf of a group of 11 small island developing states.
For our states, climate change is not a threat of the future.
It is the situation today enjoying thwarting the enjoyment of basic human rights.
That's why we're pleased to hold this debate on climate financing.
Access to adequate and predictable climate financing is not just an economic issue for us.
It's absolutely vital for protecting our people and ensuring enjoyment of human rights.
We welcome the recent advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice, which was a a Pacific Island initiative.
This underscored the importance of international cooperation for supporting the countries which are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, despite only marginally contributing to emissions of greenhouse gases, the small island developing states bear the brunt of the impacts, notably sea level rise and king tides causing serious and irreversible damage This has a serious impact on our communities including tribal communities.
We call for more equitable climate financing architecture which is more equitable as well and which will respond to the vulnerabilities of small island developing states.
Thank you.
I now call on Barbados on behalf of Caricom.
Okay.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
Barbades has the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of Caricom.
Caricm welcomes the focus of this panel on advancing climate finance to address the adverse impacts of climate change on the full realization of human rights.
For Caribbean, small island developing states, climate change represents an existential threat with profound implication for the rights to life, health, food, water, housing, development, and a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.
Despite contributing minimally to global emissions, our countries continue to face disproportionate impacts while confronting limited physical space and increasing debt burdens.
CRC therefore underscores the need for climate finance that is adequate, predictable, accessible, and aligned with human rights.
Existing barriers to access must be addressed and greater attention must be given to adaptation, loss and damage.
We welcome the growing recognition of state obligations under international law to cooperate on climate action and climate finance.
This regard, international solidarity remains central to global response.
Mr.
Vice President, Cary K reiterates that climate justice and human rights are inseparable and calls for inclusive, adequate climate architecture.
I thank you.
Thank you very much.
Before we continue with the list of speakers, I would like to call on delegations to strictly respect their maximum speaking time of 1 minute 30 seconds.
I now call on El Salvador Grass.
Thank you, Vice President.
El Salvador realizes that climate change is one of the biggest challenges to the full enjoyment of human rights, particularly in developing countries.
They face ever more severe impacts despite the fact that they have contributed less to global emissions.
We believe that it's absolutely vital that climate financing be accessible, predictable, and respond to national needs and priorities.
Mobilizing resources should contribute to strengthening resilience, adaptation, and sustainable development, respecting the different capacities and circumstances of each country.
This regard, we would like to underscore the importance of strengthening international cooperation, capacity building, and access to technologies and financial resources.
Climate financing must be transparent, inclusive, and efficient, allowing countries to implement solutions which are adapted to the national needs, will respect human rights and promote sustainable development.
We would be grateful if the panelists could tell us what they think about International financing mechanisms responding better to the needs of developing countries so that they can be more effective in their use of them.
Thank you.
And now give the floor to the Marshall Islands.
Mr.
Vice President, the Republic of the Marshall Islands thanks to the esteemed panelists for their remarks.
The climate crisis is a severe and irreversible threat to all of us, but its worst effects are felt disproportionately by those who contributed the least to it.
In that regard, Pacific Sidscluding the Marshall Islands, face the most immediate consequences of sea level rise, but yet are least equipped financially or operationally to respond to the climate crisis, receiving only about 2% of global adaptation finance commitments.
Despite our efforts to access and diversify funding sources for climate action, the quantity, quality, and accessibility of climate finance do not match the urgency of action we need.
Climate finance mechanisms were not designed with SIDs in mind.
Long processes, eligibility rules, and risk standards exclude us.
Moreover, 44% of public international adaptation finance to CIDs arrives as debt, further straining our fragile economies.
This is why the Marshall Islands reiterates its call for scaled up support in the form of public, grant based and highly concessional finance to meet our adaptation needs.
Solving one problem should not lead to another, hence, concessionality and grants are particularly crucial.
Calling for the financing about climate adaptation needs is a call for climate justice.
It is calling for solidarity and fairness in addressing a crisis our people are forced to face.
We therefore urge states to support a human rights based approach to mobilizing climate finance and to expand direct, simplified access to climate finance for those most in need to ensure that those that contributed the least to this crisis do not end up paying the highest cost.
I thank you.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Gambia.
Event.
The Gambia welcomes this time the discussion on advancing actionable pathways for climate finance through a human rights based approach, and thank the panelists for their valuable contributions.
For the Gambia, climate change is a direct threat to livelihoods, food security, coastal communities, and the enjoyment of human rights.
As a low lying and climate vulnerable country, we continue to face coastal erosion, flooding, changing rainfall patterns, and growing pressure on agriculture and natural resources.
Access to climate finance, however, remains difficult.
Complex procedures, limited institutional capacity, and restrictive eligibility requirements often prevent vulnerable countries from benefiting fully from existing mechanisms.
These challenges are compounded by rising debt burdens.
Research has shown that more than 3 billion people live in countries that spend more on debt interest payments than on either health or education.
Climate finance must therefore be predictable, accessible, and primarily grant bees.
It should prioritize adaptation, resilience, and responses to loss and damage, particularly for countries that contribute very little to global emissions but face severe impacts.
Mr.
Vice President, the Gambia calls for stronger international support to ensure that climate finance reaches those most affected, including women, farmers, and the coastal communities through transparent and accountable processes.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Ethiopia.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
Ethiopia thanks the panelists for their valuable insights on this important issue.
Climate change poses a serious threat on the enjoyment of human rights, particularly in developing countries that have contributed least to the global emissions, yet bear a disproportionate share of its adverse impacts.
In this regard, Ethiopia underscores that climate finance is not only an environmental imperative, but also a matter of equity of equity, international solidarity, and generalization of the right to development.
Efforts to mobilize climate finance must be guided by the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
We remain concerned that climate finance flows remain inadequate, unevenly distributed and largely debt creating.
Greater emphasis should be placed on adaptation financing, particularly for least developed countries and vulnerable communities while ensuring simplified and direct access to climate finance.
Ethiopia therefore calls for first a significant scaling up of predictable and accessible and grant based climate financing.
Second, enhanced support for adaptation and resilience building initiatives and search strengthened international cooperation to expand the fiscal space for developing countries to pursue climate resilient and sustainable development pathways.
In this context, we would be interested to hear from the panelists what practical measures could be taken to improve direct access to climate finance for developing countries while ensuring national ownership and alignment with development priorities.
Charles Glass.
Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, we shall now turn to the list of speakers from national Human Rights institutions and non governmental organizations.
I call on the Philippines Human Rights Commission.
The Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines stresses the need for adequate, accessible, and transparent mobilization of climate finance to enable meaningful action and adaptation measures to address the adverse impacts of climate change.
The CHRP urges governments to meet their climate finance commitments and scale up climate finance to support more ambitious efforts to meet the targets set by the Paris Agreement and at cop 28 in Baku to operationalize the fund corresponding to loss and damage.
This is critical for least developed and developing countries and small island developing states which suffer from both economic and non economic losses and damages associated with climate change, despite contributing the least to the crisis.
Genuine climate justice ensures that governments that have historically benefited the most from industrialization bear greater responsibility in addressing the climate crisis.
Following the carbon majors inquiry, the CHRP continues to call on financial institutions to redirect capital to green projects and support a shift toward cleaner energy.
We encourage financial institutions and the private sector to embrace their unique position to influence and scale up investments that will instead lead to genuine climate solutions.
To this end, the CHRP forwards that the just and equitable mobilization of climate finance through rights based and evidence based approaches guided by the best available science is necessary for attaining climate justice.
Michel.
Thank you very much.
I now call on the National Human Rights Committee of Qatar Neice salon.
They're not in the room, I will turn to the next speaker, which is the International Service for Human Rights through video.
Emphasize the crucial importance of examining climate financing through a human rights lens as central to efforts to address climate change effectively and equitably.
Sri Lanka emits less than 0.05% of global carbon, yet 85% of government revenue services debt.
Adaptation and disaster response remain unfunded.
Marginalized communities are living the consequences of a crisis they did not create.
This is the debt and climate trap.
The international financial architecture is deepening it.
UNDP publicly called for operationalizing of carbon markets to attract private capital in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka's national climate finance strategy, funded by the UK and implemented by UNDP, proposes debt swaps and carbon markets as co instruments.
These reproduce colonial disposition, translating socio ecological relationships into monetized units and erasing the custodial knowledge systems of indigenous and local communities.
Military emissions remain excluded from UNF triple C reporting and the loss and damage fund is not delivering.
This council must establish standards ensuring debt cancellation without conditionalities.
Grant based climate finance that creates no new debt.
An end to market mechanisms that commodify nature and displace communities and accountability for financial institutions, enabling environment and meaningful participation of human rights defenders as prerequisites for effective and equitable climate finance.
Rights based climate finance must become the standard.
Charles Gracia.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Peace Brigades International.
Mr.
Vice President, Peace Brigade International works alongside communities on the front lines of climate change and crisis in Guatemala, Honduras, in Colombia, amongst others.
Our message is simple, climate finance will not deliver unless it reaches already protecting the ecosystems at stake.
Indigenous Charti, Pocama and ch communities in Guatemala, indigenous and Afro descendant peoples in Honduras and ethnic and peasants communities in Putumayo, Rumando, and Bala Malaga in Colombia.
Are among the most climate vulnerable populations on Earth.
They are also the most effective stewards of biodiversity rich territories.
Yet climate finance systematically bypasses them.
Redirecting these flows through direct access, simplified mechanisms, free prior informed consent, and gender responsive safeguards is not only a human rights obligation.
It is the most ecologically effective investment available.
Our question to the panelists, how can climate finance architecture be redesigned so the local communities and environmental defenders become its primary beneficiaries rather than its afterthought.
Thank you.
Gras Thank you very much.
I would now like to call on Aoione comitapp Givntitre.
While the current climate finance landscape mostly ignores the structural injustices which cause climate and such a crisis, the increasing corporate capture of climate governance and profit oriented green transition often results in intensifying natural resources, exploitation, human rights abuses, land grabbing and debt creation.
Indeed, market based solutions like carbon credits, in many cases lead to further adverse effects on biodiversity and human rights and foster such economic exclusion and discrimination.
As a civil society organization working at the grassroots level, we have directly witnessed the impact of such neo colonial practices on indigenous peoples, pastoralists, and small farmers.
For example, in relation to green energy projects in Chile and North Kenya, climate financing needs to incorporate human rights impact assessment and meaningful participation in governance and decision making.
Ensuring the free, prior, and informed consent, and taking into account traditional and ecological knowledge.
EPG 23 reiterates that aligning climate financing and human rights requires adopting a right to development and solidarity based perspective, reshaping global financial and fiscal architecture, ensuring adequate, accessible and concessional public finance channel to affected communities, and redirecting resources from the fossil fuel and war economy.
Who suffer due to climate change need a climate financing that does not amplify harms and inequalities, but contributes to climate justice center development.
Thank you.
I call on the Center for International Environment Law, CL.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
Human rights are central to effective and just climate finance for mitigation adaptation, and loss and damage.
Yet current climate finance is not rooted in human rights, is too low, debt creating and disproportionately focused on mitigation with a small percentage going directly to communities.
Under the UNF TOC, the loss and damage fund, it's not funded at scalO with a preference for inadequate voluntary contributions.
In its advisory opinion on climate change, the ICJ has affirmed that providing climate finance at scale by developed countries is a legal obligation grounded international law and equity.
One must be clear about what does not constitute rights compatible finance.
Carbon market offsets are not climate finance, cause human rights harms and often benefit companies in the global north while enabling continued GAG emissions.
Investor state dispute settlement mechanisms further divert public funds to private polluters through damage awards.
True climate justice requires transition away from models that drain public resources, fulfilling binding legal obligations through adequate, predictable, participatory, grand basic and transparent public finance is indispensable to prevent further harm and safeguard human rights.
Thank you.
G Thank you very much.
We've come to the end of the first segment on this speaker's list.
Let's move on to the second segment of states.
I give the floor to a.
Thank you.
Mr.
President, my delegation wishes to underscore the need to further international cooperation to address the increasing impact of climate change on the enjoyment on human rights, particularly in the climate affected countries.
Kuwait is one of the climate affected countries, including the high rise of temperatures and the changed patterns of rainfall, as well as the dust and sand storms with the consequent economic, social, environmental and health impacts, which requires further adaptation and resilience building.
My country has been carrying out national programs and projects to reduce greenhouse gases and adaptation.
We are developing a roadmap to realize neutral carbon neutrality by 26 in line with our international obligations and national efforts in terms of the protection of the environment.
In conclusion, we reaffirm our commitment to the principle of common but differentiated responsibility and we call for a balanced approach towards addressing climate change and realizing balance between the protection of the environment and sustainable development.
We are looking forward for Cp 31 to scheduled to be held in the friendly Republic of Turkey to realize our aspirations.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Iraq.
San Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
My delegation welcomes the report of the Special Rapporteur on climate change and commends her ongoing efforts in shedding light on the humanitarian dimensions of this global crisis.
Mr.
Vice President, we attach great importance to climate change repercussions.
We've been working and collaborating with local and international partners to develop measures and a national strategy for the sustainable management of lands while improving the use of natural resources and supporting biological and agricultural diversity, while ensuring climate resilience and launching an application that provides information and indication for small farmers, while boosting accountability in public and private sectors, thus increasing transparency and accountability in the agricultural sector.
My government works through its foreign relations and in partnership with the international organizations towards alleviating the impact of climate change, reducing emissions, combating desertification while preserving lakes, lagoons, and natural reserves.
This is a translation of our responsibilities into effective outcomes that serve human rights.
In conclusion, my delegation calls upon the international community to support efforts in combating the repercussions of environmental challenges and to ensure Presidential interruption.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Algeia.
Mr.
Vice President, we commend this timely panel.
Climate finance is essential for strengthening resilience, supporting adaptation, and realize on all human rights, including the right to development.
Developing countries suffer the worst climate impact despite their limited emissions.
Actionable climate finance is essential to address this human rights impact while pursuing sustainable development.
In this context, my delegation wish to emphasize the following.
First, commitments must be honored and scaled up without creating additional debt burdens.
Second, access to finance must be simplified for countries facing capacity constraints.
Third, greater resources must be devoted to adaptation, especially for those facing drought and desertification.
Finally, finance must align with the principles of the UN Framework Convention on climate change and the Paris Agreement, including equity, common but differentiated responsibilities, and respective capabilities.
I thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Nepal.
Mr.
Vice President, Nepal, thanks the distinguished panel for the insights and we believe that climate change continues to impact disproimately to the mountain countries, LDCs, LLDCs and seeds.
Last year, Nepal hosted a climate dialogue, international multi stakeholder dialogue forum, Sagbata Sambad in Kathmandu under the theme of climate change, mountains, and future humanity.
The 25 point outcome document, Sagar Mata call for action focused on such core areas as climate targets and mitigation, mountain protection, and climate justice.
Nepal continues to face severe impacts of climate change, including extreme weather events, heat waves, droughts, glacial lake outburst, floods and landslides.
These adverse impact, threaten lives and livelihoods, weaken communities resilience, and risk the and also reversal of the development gain.
Adré the impacts of climate change requires appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures supported by a reliable, predictable, and accessible finance.
Climate finance is therefore a matter of justice, an investment in human rights and a way to achieving sustainable development.
Therefore, Nepal calls for increased flow of resources and vulnerable communities and the grants and concessions.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Bangladesh.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
Bangladesh appreciates the panelists for their contributions.
For Bangladesh and other climate vulnerable countries, the adverse impacts of climate change are a leaving reality.
Rising sea levels, extreme weather events, salinity intrusion, river erosion, and climate induced displacement are placing unprecedented pressure on communities, ecosystems, and national capacities.
These impacts are eroding hard worn development gains, deepening poverty and vulnerability, and threatening the enjoyment of human rights.
We express grave concern over the persistent and widening gaps and selectivity in climate financing that seriously undermines the efforts of adaptation and responding to loss and damage.
These gaps continue to constrain the ability of vulnerable developing countries and least developed countries to protect lives, livelihood, and human dignity.
Mr.
Vice President, effective climate action requires predictable, adequate, and accessible climate finance, technology transfer, and capacity building commensurate with the scale and urgency of needs.
The principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities must remain at the heart of global climate action.
Developed countries must fulfill their commitments under the UNF and the Paris Agreement.
Thank you.
I now call on Maldives.
I beg your pardon, Malaysia.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
Malaysia welcomes the convening of this timely panel discussion.
Climate change continues to affect the full enjoyment of human rights, including the rights to life, health, food, water, housing, development, and a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.
For developing countries, climate action must therefore be matched by adequate, predictable and accessible climate finance.
Malaysia supports a human rights based approach to climate finance.
Financing mechanisms should be transparent, accountable, participatory, and responsive to the needs of communities most affected by climate impacts, including women, children, indigenous peoples, and persons in vulnerable situations.
We remain firmly committed to the UNF triple C and the Paris Agreement, guided by the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
Messer submitted its nationally determined contribution 3.0 in October last year, committing to peak greenhouse gas emissions 2029-2034.
Followed by absolute emissions reductions towards our aspiration of net zero emissions by 2050.
Enhanced ambition requires strengthened means of implementation, particularly climate finance, technology transfer, and capacity building.
These are essential to support adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and resilient infrastructure.
We seek the panel's views on how climate finance can better reach developing countries and affected communities in a timely, equitable and rights based manner.
Thank you.
Gracias.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Maldives.
Mr.
Vice President, the Maldives thanks the panel for their insightful contributions.
We refer to the Maldives oral submission to the ICG advisory proceedings on climate change in which we highlighted our acute vulnerability to the impacts of the climate crisis, particularly slow onset events such as sea level rise, coastal erosion, and coral bleaching.
Mr.
Vice President, current climate finance flows remain both inadequate, inequitable, and unpredictable, despite contributing less than 1% of global emissions, seeds receive only a small fraction of international climate finance while mitigation continues to be prioritized by partners and investors at the expense of adaptation and loss and damage.
Outdated GDP based criteria continue to restrict access to concessional financing for vulnerable countries.
Moreover, we call for the operationalization of the new collective quantified goal agreed at Cop 29, noting that the goal falls far short of what is needed.
This is not merely a financing gap, it is a human rights imperative.
We therefore call on all states to adopt the multidimensional vulnerability index, increase grant based adaptation finance, and fully capitalize and replenish the multilateral climate funds, including the fund for responding to loss and damage.
I thank you.
Michel, thank you very much.
I now call on Togo.
Mercy.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
My dedication welcomes the holding of this debate and thanks the High Commissioner for his report.
Togo fully aligns itself with the goal of this panel, that is to say to facilitate concrete action to accelerate climate finance aligned with human rights.
Mr.
President, Togo integrates a human rights based approach in its climate response.
Legislative terms, my country has adopted a framework law on climate change which places the human at the core of public action and which reinforces the National adaptation plan established in 2016 and which was recently updated to take into account new requirements.
Operationally, we have validated an analysis of the climate landscape for children in order to better guide our policies.
Togo is committed to further strengthen its implementation of the climate finance policy, ensuring that mobilized resources directly benefit the most vulnerable.
My country would also like to emphasize the need to explore the pathways for debt relief for the least developed countries in order to allow them to constitute additional resources to finance climate action.
Thank you.
Mira.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Cameroon.
President.
Thank you, Mr.
President, Cameroon congratulates the High Commissioner on the holding of this annual discussion and welcomes the relevance of the topic for this year.
As many developing countries, my country also faces growing impacts of climate change in particular recurrent droughts in northern regions, floods, coastal erosion, as well as the degradation of ecosystems.
This has direct effects on the livelihoods and the full enjoyment of human rights of the people.
However, needs in terms of adaptation and resilience are still considerable and outpace available resources.
This is why we particularly attach importance to the mobilization of adequate predictable and accessible climate finance for the most exposed populations and sectors.
My country has thus engaged in several concrete initiatives.
It has a adopted climate sensitive budgeting for the fiscal year 2026 and we will continue in 2026.
Moreover, in January 2026, the National Observatory of Climate Change launched a digital platform to follow climate risk.
This early warning tool based on artificial intelligence, allows us to anticipate floods, droughts, and other natural disasters, thereby protecting people and reducing economic loss.
We are convinced that the strengthening of climate finance is an essential tool to support adaptation efforts of a developing countries.
Thank you.
I now call on Kenya.
Mr.
Vice President, Kenya aligns itself with a statement delivered by the African group and welcomes this timely discussion.
Climate change remains one of the greatest challenges to the full realization of human rights.
It impacts continue to undermine food security, access to drinking water and sanitation, health outcomes, adequate housing and sustainable livelihoods with the most severe consequences being borne by the vulnerable communities in developing countries.
A recognizes that effective climate action and the protection of human rights are mutually reinforcing.
Efforts to address climate change must therefore place people at the center and ensure that no one is left behind.
With this regard, climate finance is a critical enabler of adaptation, resilience building, and sustainable development.
We underscore the importance of ensuring that climate finance is adequate, predictable, and accessible in accordance with the Paris Agreement and in line with the principles of CBDR, particularly for developing countries that continue to face significant resources and capacity constraints.
Kenya further emphasizes the need to expand fiscal space for developing countries and to promote financing approaches that support climate action without exacerbating debt vulnerabilities.
This will enable countries to better protect livelihood, strengthen resilience, and advancedization of human rights.
Kenya remains committed to strengthen the international cooperation, advancing our people centered and human rights based approach to climate action and addressing the adverse impacts of climate change or the falization of human rights.
Thank you.
Garcias.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Tunisia.
President.
Thank you, Vice President.
The palace have highlighted the devastating effects of climate change on human rights, affecting fundamental human rights, notably the right to life sea level rise is just one of the phenomena affecting the well being and quality of life.
This disproportionately affects the most vulnerable vice president.
Developing countries including Tunisia, only emit a small amount of greenhouse gases, but they bear the brunt of climate change whilst their ability to adapt to climate change is limited, despite the fact that climate change undermines our government's efforts to achieve the SDGs and that we only emit a small amount of greenhouse gases, Tunisia continues to contribute to the efforts to combat climate change.
In view of the risks to our system, we must take on our responsibilities to act decisively and urgently.
A more ambitious commitment from the international community based on common but shared responsibility is needed in order to halt climate change and also we must ensure adaptability, financing, transfer technology, and capacity building.
This is all vital for achieving the Paris goals and to honor the ICJ advisory opinion on climate change.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I call on Malawi.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
Malawi, thanks the panelists for their insightful presentations.
Malawi is among the most climate vulnerable countries in the world, yet among the least responsible for the global emissions driving this crisis.
The smallholder farmers, fishing communities, and women of Malawi who bear the heaviest burden of climate shocks do so not because of failure on their part, but because of the international communities that is yet to fully honor its obligations.
The ICJ as advisory opinion has affirmed that the duty to cooperate on climate action, including through finance assistance to developing countries is legally binding under international law.
Malawi notes with deep concern that the architecture through which climate finance flows continues to fail the most vulnerable.
It is debt creating rather than grant based, complex rather than where it should be simple, opaque, where it should be accountable and not readily accessible to the communities who need it the most.
Malawi wishes to pose a question to the panelists.
In your experience, what has been the single most effective intervention in making climate finance genuinely accessible to affected communities and what lessons should least developed countries be advocating for in the ongoing reform for global climate finance architecture? I thank you.
Michels Graz.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Timor-Leste.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
Timor-Leste, thanks the council for convening this important discussion on climate change, human rights, and climate finance.
Timor-Leste align itself with the statement delivered by Asean.
For Timor-Leste, climate change is already daily reality.
Rising sea levels, coastal erosion, and extreme weather events are the threatening food security, water access, housing, and livelihoods.
The impact directly undermine the enjoyment of fundamental human rights, particularly for rural and coastal communities.
We welcome the growing recognition of state obligation under international human rights law in the context of climate change, including the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on obligation of states in respect of climate change.
This reaffirmed that climate action is not optional.
It is an obligation grounded in protection of human rights.
The modest calls for climate finance that is adequate, predictable, and accessible.
It must be guided by human rights principles, transparency, participation, accountability, and equity.
For Timor-Leste, climate financing should mainly be public and grant based for the most vulnerable.
Private and consensual financing shall be complementary.
In conclusion, climate finance must become a zooming tool for the realization of human rights and Timor-Leste stands ready to work with all partners to turn commitment into concrete and urgent action.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I now call on the South Center.
President.
The climate emergency is fundamentally a human rights crisis.
It threatens the rights to life, health, food, and development, particularly for the most vulnerable populations which were the least historical responsibility.
Today, insufficient debt creating climate finance forces a difficult choice, service for in depth or protecting populations.
These undermines economic, social, and cultural rights.
Climate action must be anchoring the principle of common differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities and supported by adequate, predictable and accessible finance.
We therefore recommend four actional pathways.
First, advanced economies must provide new grant public finance rather than relying solely on profit driven private sector solutions.
Second, following the International Court of Justice advisory opinion, providing climate reparations is a binding legal obligation.
Therefore, the loss and damage fund must recognize historical emissions and be adequately funded.
Third, we must dismantle barriers shrinking the policy space of states for a green transition.
We must address the impacts of intellectual property monopolies that block technology transfer, ISDA mechanisms that penalize legitimate climate regulations, and unilateral coercive measures that cripple domestic resilience of targeted countries.
Finally, climate finance must facilitate the right to development.
It must not be weaponized to restrictive conditionalities that block vulnerable communities from accessessing urgently needed funds.
I thank you.
G G.
Thank you very much.
I will now turn to the list of speakers from national human rights institutions and non governmental organizations.
I give the floor, first of all, to Coordination of Associations and Individuals for the Freedom of Conscience.
Dear President, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Gary Cartwrax.
I'm the editor of EU Today.
I deliver this statement on behalf of Cap Liberty Conscience in relation to the mandate on human rights and climate change.
We wish to draw attention to the proposed China Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan railway and its possible impacts on fragile high mountain ecosystems in Kyrgyzstan.
These landscapes are particularly relevant as a snow leopard habitat to ecological connectivity, mountain watersheds, and also importantly, local livelihoods.
They're also increasingly vulnerable to climate change.
Decisions on major infrastructure in such areas may have long term consequences for biodiversity, water security, and the adaptive capacity of both communities and species.
This is not an argument against development or against regional connectivity.
This is an argument for transparency for public participation, environmental due diligence before irreversible damage occurs.
We therefore call for the full publication of the environmental impact assessment for the Kyrgyz section of the railway for disclosure of root level documentation and an independent ecological review and meaningful participation by affected communities and civil society.
The right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment must be applied in practice, including an infrastructure project affecting climate sensitive ecosystems.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you very much.
I now call on just atonement by video.
Thank you, Your Excellencies, and thank you to the president of the Council.
Just Atonement, Inc would like to express its gratitude to the panel for considering the crucial intersection of climate finance and human rights.
We urge the panel and the larger Human Rights Council to consider three distinct but interrelated imperatives, reducing fossil fuel subsidies, coordinating with the Framework Convention on international tax cooperation, and fostering an open dialogue with the public about the implications of the economic transition necessary to maintain a habitable planet and protect human rights.
First, international actors must work to drastically reduce fossil fuel subsidies.
The council must support all efforts to accelerate subsidy reform, promote transparency, and pursue public investments in the energy transition.
Second, the council should investigate institutional breaches with the UN Framework Convention on international tax cooperation to ensure that fossil fuel companies and the ultra wealthy are subject to equitable tax measures.
Lastly, the council must foster trust in the possibility of a just transition by communicating to the general public that the majority of financial losses from fossil fuel divestment would be borne by the most ultra affluent individuals and would make up only a small percentage of their total wealth.
Dedicated energy and intentionality are needed to finance a just transition and end the era of fossil fuels.
We thank the panel for this discussion.
Muti Grass, thank you very much.
I now call on Earth justice to Vice President.
Last March, over 200 prominent economists and legal scholars have issued a powerful public letter urging decisive policy change to address the significant barrier to climate action created by investor state dispute settlements, also called ISDS.
Aiming at increasing the flow of foreign funds for guaranteeing the safety of financial investments, thousands of investment agreements have been negotiated over the last decade.
Most of them include some form of ISDS mechanism enabling private companies to sue directly foreign countries when public action is seen as reducing the value of their investments.
Such mechanisms have led to exorbitant compensation demands against states who just protected their environment or promoted much needed climate action.
Fossil fuel and mining industries have already won billions in awards.
Such cases create regulatory chill and undermine state climate action, including at the level of regions and cities.
This public letter, notably backed by the Nobel Prize, Joseph Stiglit, economist Thomas Pictti and key architect of the Paris Agreement Laurence Tubna echoes previous council debates or special rapporteurs report on this issue.
We call this council to answer to this call for action by addressing the human rights impact of ISDS in the context of climate finance and pave the way for structural changes in the investment and financial landscape.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you very much.
I now call on Asian Pacific Resource and Research Center for Women Arrow.
Across Asia in the Pacific, climate change is intensifying inequalities and undermining the inherent human rights of women, young people, indigenous peoples, and other marginalized communities.
Rights based climate action must be rooted in gender and climate justice.
As we deliberate on actionable pathways for climate financing, must confront a stark reality.
Climate change is not neutral, and neither is our current financial response, yet adaptation remains critically underfunded.
The Asia Pacific region faces an estimated annual adaptation finance gap of US dollar 194 to 366 billion.
This directly translates to community struggles to access basic social services, and women face barriers to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
We call on states and financing institutions to increase investments in rights based, gender responsive, and locally led adaptation efforts that truly supports community resilience, builds infrastructure, and strengthen public services, ensures meaningful participation of women and marginalized communities and decision making, implementation, and monitoring for sustance.
Closing the climate finance gap is a human rights obligation.
Financing must truly reach those who have contributed least to the climate crisis, yet bear its greatest impacts.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I now call on the Brazilian Association of gays, lesbians, and transgender people.
Thank you.
I come from Brazil.
Where life is beautiful, but violence as well.
We have water forests becoming commodities.
Ecology is not just an environmental agenda, it must include climate justice because not everybody is affected in the same way.
It affects urban peripheries, indigenous peoples, black communities, peasant, and traditional communities, kilombolas, transvestites, and the LGBTQ plus communities where there is too much violence.
When Bodies are affected by poisons when there's no healthy food, where rubbish reaches the sacrificed areas, is the marginalized people who are footing the bill which profits just a few.
There must be climate justice, but we won't achieve it unless there is justice for the LGBTQI plus community.
You won't be able to protect nature unless you protect the lives of those people who've been traditionally marginalized.
My question, how do international mechanisms plan to finance and listen to the LGBTQI plus community who imagine the future in a different way and defend different models for care and living? Defending nature is defending our lives.
Thank you.
I now call on the Association for Women's Rights and Development.
Thank you, President.
Climate finance remains rooted in colonial and neoliberal systems that prioritize profit, extraction, and exploitation over justice and sustainability.
A human rights approach requires those most responsible, especially global no states, corporations, and international financial institutions to pay for their historical and current environmental harms.
Climate finance must be reparative, not debt creating.
Loans, debt swaps, carbon markets, and offsets force the global south to repay the cost of the crisis.
They deepen austerity, push countries towards further extraction, and undermine the right to health, food, housing, water, land, and self determination.
The fiction that the same profit driven polluting actors who treat the planet and human life as expendable commodities can be trusted to solve the crisis must be rejected.
States must stop the corporate capture of climate policy spaces, reject false solutions, and subsidies and public support for fossil fuels and extractive industries.
The lack of resources is also a myth.
Through debt cancellation, progressive taxation, divesting from military spending and ending fossil fuel subsidies, states should redirect funds towards care infrastructure, social protection, public services, food and energy sovereignty, and families alternative.
How will the council ensure that climate finance repairs harm and redistributes power instead of expanding markets for the destruction of human life and the planet? Thank you.
Thank you very much.
We've now reached the end of the second segment on the speaker's list from NHRs NGOs.
Distinguished panelists and participants, I would like to remind you that delegates inscribed on the list of speakers who are unable to take the floor because of time constraints can upload their statements so that they can be put on the extranet.
I'd now like to give the floor back to our panelists so that they can make some concluding remarks.
You each have 2 minutes and I'd like to begin by giving the floor to Ambassador Patricia Ann Hermans.
Pidente.
Over the years, we have seen the creation of a number of climate related initiatives to support countries vulnerable to the impact of the climate crisis.
The climate Investment Fund, the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund, the loss and Damage Fund are a few of such initiatives.
They're all admirable as well as well intentioned attempts to bring support to vulnerable countries.
Unfortunately, they have not produced the results intended.
This has been the cause of significant public debate.
Is it the lack of money or the lack of will? Perspectives change based on the audience to whom the question is posed, but trend more decisively to the lack of will.
Structural changes in the IFA, along with self driven initiatives by affected countries, provide real possibilities for swift, meaningful impact in the short term.
It is hoped that these measures will buy us some time to allow more meaningful support from the international community.
Without wanting to sound alarmist, time is unfortunately not on our side.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
Mira.
Thank you very much.
I would now like to give the floor to miss Maria Ron Balsa.
Thank you very much for your interventions.
It's clear that climate finance is not working.
It also should be clear that climate finance is not an economic technical issue, it is a human rights issue, and this report is essential to underscore that.
To some of the questions formulated by the EU and particularly El Salvador, I think it's really important to be breaking the silos.
What's happening in the World Bank and the IMF has huge consequences for climate finance.
We really need to be going beyond and then engaging in particularly in tax and debt.
Some of these mechanisms are crucial for this because what they're portraying is not really in terms of the human rights alignment and we need to make sure that this is the case, particularly as the Earth justice was mentioning, the IDS, the borrowing platforms.
Also, when we are talking about the In terms of the legislations that are trying to be changed in New York and in London for private creditors, all of these matters and we really need to be engaging with some of the negotiations, for instance, for the UN framework Tax Convention and push for a potential UN framework debt convention.
All of this is key if we are really to have this climate finance which is accessible, which is adequate, which is predictable, all of these things that we all seem to be in agreement.
Yes, time is sticking really we don't have enough time.
And we really need to be ambitious in what we are asking.
We need to be joining forces and leave those lobbyists and those investors interests behind and really be thinking of the next generations.
This can be done and we don't need to be in competition with other climate financing doesn't need to be in competition with the other human rights.
There is enough money for everything.
We just need to be bold.
Thank you.
Michael Graz, thank you very much.
I'd now like to give the floor to Mr.
Mohammed HafiJulizm Kan.
President, let me respond to the question raised by the Malawi, particularly, what are the actionable pathways? We know that under the climate change regime, now we are involved to implement the two years finance work program so that work program gives us an opportunity to explore the ways.
For example, we need to agree on a climate finance definition.
I know it's difficult to agree on a definition.
However, we need to think about set standard criterias so that we can identify or we can track the climate finance.
Number one, number two, we need to develop a resource mobilization strategies.
Simulusa mentioned that public finance should be the primary source of finance.
At the same time, this is the time to explore the innovative sources, including for the private sector.
But challenges we need to address.
For example, how to collaborate with UN Tax Convention and other international entities.
Finally, we need to provide some guidance for national governments, how to develop national financial mechanisms To protect their vulnerable citizens, we need to ensure the transparency and accountability also at the national level.
Finally, here in the council, what we can do actually, we should endorse the advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice, not only the endorsement, we need to provide clear guidance because advisory opinion clarified how the human rights is violating international law, and what is the relation between climate change and violation of human rights? But this council can provide us clear guidance how to protect human rights, how to mobilize the financial resources, technical assistance, capacity building to protect the human rights of millions of people from the most vulnerable countries.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
Go.
Thank you very much.
Well, this brings us to the end of this important panel discussion.
I would like to thank the High Commissioner, our distinguished panelists, and for all participants who've contributed to our discussion.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.
This brings us to the end of this meeting.
As I've mentioned, we'll reconvene this afternoon at 3:00 P.M.
To continue the interactive dialogue with the special rapporteur on discrimination against persons with leprosy, Hansen's disease, and to begin the interactive dialogue with the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change.
I would also like to remind you that the informal high level discussion on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Human Rights Council is scheduled to take place shortly after we adjourn this meeting.
That is to say at 12:30 here in the Assembly Hall.
I hereby close the ninth meeting of the 62nd session of the Human Rights Council.
Thank you all.