The 12th UN Forum on Business and Human Rights is being held in Geneva, Switzerland, November 27-29, 2023. Kimiko Hirata, Executive Director of Climate Integrate, presented a keynote address for the opening plenary session.
The forum, held annually since 2012, provides a platform for participation and discussions by various stakeholders based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). This year’s overall theme is “Towards Effective Change in Implementing Obligations, Responsibilities and Remedies.” The forum continues until Wednesday, November 29.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Last year, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment (click here for UN News story, click here for full text), recognizing rights to the environment as a human right for the first time. In an open letter dated 15 November, 2023, Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for human rights to be at the core of decision-making at the upcoming COP28 climate conference and for a phase-out of fossil fuels. It is becoming increasingly important to strengthen climate action from the perspective of protecting human rights.
Besides Ms. Hirata, some of the other speakers at this year’s opening plenary, on the theme of “Looking at the past, anticipating the future,” included Celeste Drake, Deputy Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Christine Kaufmann, Chair of the OECD Working Party on Responsible Business Conduct (WPRBC), and Edward Kwakwa, Assistant Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The recorded video is available on UN Web TV.
In her address, Ms. Hirata noted that actions driving climate change are clear violations of human rights and emphasized that there is no way to protect human rights unless companies and governments take climate responsibility. She also pointed out that fossil fuel subsidies in 2022 doubled from the previous year, and some developed countries – including Japan – do not even have coal phase-out policies. Ms. Hirata called for an agreement to phase out fossil fuels and shift to renewable energy rapidly and boldly at COP28, which starts this week in Dubai. She also called on governments, businesses, and civil society organizations to work together without compromise to protect human rights and the climate.