27 January 2015 – United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Change and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson met with Ambassador Cecilia B. Rebong, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva, on January 16 to discuss the issue of human rights and climate change.
Ms. Robinson was the President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, and served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002. She was also appointed as UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa (2013) and continues to be the President of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, an organization that advocates for victims of climate change who are usually forgotten – the poor, the disempowered and the marginalized across the world.
The Philippines and Bangladesh are main co-sponsors of the resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on “Human Rights and Climate Change” in June 2014, calling on the Council to hold a full-day panel discussion on the adverse impact of climate change on the realization of the right to food and on the role of enhanced international dialogue and cooperation in addressing the adverse impacts of climate change on the effective enjoyment of human rights. Ms. Robinson is one of the high-level resource persons at the panel discussion which will take place on March 06 during the 28th session of the UN Human Rights Council.
During the meeting, Ms. Robinson explained her efforts to put a human face to climate change during the UNFCCC meetings in Lima, Peru. Ambassador Rebong said that the Philippines and Bangladesh hope that the panel discussion in March would feed into the climate change negotiations in December; that there is a need for more coherence in multilateral actions or discussions; and that negotiators have to understand that what we are discussing now are critical to the very survival of people whose situations are made even more vulnerable by the adverse impacts of climate change.
Agreeing that there is need for coherence, Ms. Robinson highlighted that we are working against time, and an approach to make all climate change-related discussions and actions more urgent, people-centered and gender-sensitive is imperative.
UN Special Envoy Robinson was accompanied by Ms. Celine Clark, Director of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice. Also in attendance during the meeting were Mr. Nazrul Islam, Charge d’Affaires, a.i. and Ms. Nahida Sobhan, Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva. END