The Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC),Tony Ojukwu, SAN, on Tuesday urged the Federal Government to mainstream human rights considerations into its climate change policies and response plans.

Speaking at a workshop organised by the NHRC in collaboration with the Danish Institute of Human Rights (DIHR), Ojukwu, said  climate change was not only an environmental or economic issue but one with far-reaching implications for fundamental human rights, including the rights to life, health, livelihood and property.

He spoke against the backdrop of increasing climate-related challenges, including flooding, extreme heat and changing weather patterns.

According to him, human activities contributing to greenhouse gas emissions are affecting the environment, with the consequences increasingly manifesting in ways that directly affect people’s rights.

He cited flooding as an example, noting that the destruction of homes and property, exposure to waterborne diseases and injuries or deaths arising from climate-related incidents all had human rights implications.

“When we talk about climate change, we are looking at what are the human rights impacts, what are the impacts on the human rights of the people,” he said.

Ojukwu explained that extreme heat could affect people’s health, while flooding could destroy homes, expose communities to diseases and, in severe cases, result in loss of life.

He said the commission was preparing its personnel to deal with an emerging category of complaints arising from climate change and its effects on communities.

He said NHRC staff would be trained and sensitised to properly understand climate-related human rights complaints, including the appropriate remedies and advice to provide affected persons.

The NHRC boss, however, said government responses to climate change had tended to focus more on emission reduction and early warning systems, without adequately addressing the human rights consequences.

“Our message to the government is that most of the time the government is only concentrating on how to reduce emissions, how to give early warning about floods and some of these issues. But they hardly look at the human rights implications,” he said.

Ojukwu urged the government to involve the NHRC and other human rights experts in climate policy and response planning to ensure that the broader consequences for citizens were adequately addressed.

He said climate-related disasters could affect the right to life and health, destroy livelihoods and businesses, and worsen food security.

He therefore called for a holistic approach that would incorporate human rights protection into government measures addressing climate change.

Ojukwu also advocated a review of Nigeria’s National Policy on Climate Change to expressly mainstream human rights considerations.

He warned that failure to do so could create a policy gap in which the full impact of climate change on people’s lives and rights would not be adequately considered.

“The national policy on climate change must be reviewed to have human rights mainstreamed into it so that the life and rights of the people will be protected by the policy,” he said.

Also speaking at a workshop, human rights, Chief Adviser at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, Maria Poppins, said climate change was already undermining development gains and the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights.

Poppins, expressed concern over the slow pace of global climate negotiations and emissions reductions, noting that countries and communities that contributed least to climate change were often among those suffering its worst consequences.