GENEVA, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Thursday she has sent an open letter to all states warning that decisions taken on climate change next month could put human rights "under threat".
She said, "human rights are under threat from a force which challenges the foundations of all life, as we know it, on this planet we share."
Bachelet sent an open letter to states ahead of the COP24 climate meeting on Dec 3-14 in Katowice, Poland.
She pointed out that the decisions taken at the meeting will govern climate action under the 2015 Paris agreement "for the indefinite future," and said that "the rights of the millions of people [are] threatened by climate change."
The UN rights chief urged states attending the meeting to work together "to take effective, ambitious, urgent, human rights-based climate action now."
She said, "Climate change is already affecting people's lives, the effective enjoyment of their rights, and the ecosystems on which we all rely."
Bachelet said it is known that the total of states' current nationally determined contributions put the world on track for roughly 3 degrees Celsius of warming, which is more than twice the target that the international community agreed to pursue efforts to reach three years ago in Paris.
"The consequences of this degree of climate change are unthinkable," the high commissioner said. "Entire nations, ecosystems, peoples and ways of life could simply cease to exist."
"Countless lives will be irreparably harmed," she said. This will include those who already face discrimination because of their gender; because of their economic status; because they are members of indigenous peoples or minorities.
It will also include migrants and those internally displaced; the aged and those with disabilities.
Bachelet said that states have obligations under international human rights law "to ensure that those affected by climate change, particularly those in vulnerable situations, have access to effective remedies and the necessary means of adaptation to enjoy lives of human dignity."
"They also have an obligation to strengthen their mitigation commitments in order to prevent the worst impacts of climate change," she said.
