Overview of presentation: (1) General problems (2) A cultural approach to human rights (3) The current status of human rights (4) Human rights and climate change (5) Key challenges for a rights-based approach to climate change (6) Questions and debate

General problems: (1) Need to develop a complex understanding of human rights (2) Current geopolitical context (3) Role of local actors (4) The G-20 parallel system (5) Limits of juridification

A cultural approach to human rights: The importance of local actors (2) Human rights in the Global South: From the Green Revolution to the Rights Revolution (3) Vernacularization of human rights at the local level

The Current Status of Human Rights: (1) “The Age of Human Rights” (Kofi Annan, 2000) (2) September 11, 2001 and the rise of the global security state (“war on terror”) (3) Abu Ghraib and the end of the liberal utopia (2003 - ?) (4) Emergence of China as an authoritarian capitalist powerhouse (11% GDP growth between 2001-2010) (5) From Arab Spring to Arab Winter, apocalyptic death cults, Piketty’s Capital, migrant crisis in Europe, return of ethnonationalism, Trump, Brexit . . .

Human rights and climate change: (1) 5th Assessment Report (2014), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) unequivocally confirmed that climate change is real and that human-made greenhouse gas emissions are its primary cause (2) « directly and indirectly » threaten the full and effective enjoyment of a range of human rights by people throughout the world, including the rights to life, water and sanitation, food, health, housing, self-determination, culture and development (3) negative impacts of climate change are disproportionately borne by persons and communities already in disadvantageous situations owing to geography, poverty, gender, age, disability, cultural or ethnic background, among others, that have historically contributed the least to greenhouse gas emissions (4) Human Rights Council (HRC), its special procedures mechanisms, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) continue to emphasize a human rights-based approch to climate change

The essential attributes to a human rights-based approach to climate change are the following: (1) As climate change policies and programmes are formulated, the main objective should be to fulfil human rights. (2) The rights-holders and their entitlements must be identified as well as the corresponding duty-bearers and their obligations in order to find ways to strengthen the capacities of rights-holders to make claims and of duty-bearers to meet their obligations. (3) Principles and standards derived from international human rights law – especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the core universal human rights treaties, should guide all climate change policies and programming in all phases of the process.

Key challenges for a human rights-based approach to climate change: (1) Lack of trust in global institutions (2) Cultural and religious identitarianism hostile to scientific elites (3) Human rights system and global capitalism not equal opponents (4) Role of states impedes action (5) Human rights as tool not clear (everything and nothing problem) (6) China (16.4%) and US (15.7%) (7) Too little too late?