The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has inaugurated a National Working Group on Human Rights and Climate Change, declared that climate change is no longer just an environmental challenge but a human rights issue that demands urgent action.
Speaking at the inauguration in Abuja, the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Chief Tony Ojukwu, said the devastating impact of climate change on lives and livelihoods required a people-centred approach to policy and action.
According to Ojukwu, climate change is about families losing their homes, farmers losing their livelihoods, communities being displaced and vulnerable groups sinking deeper into poverty. He stressed that every climate policy must answer one fundamental question: How does it affect people?
The Executive Secretary said the newly inaugurated Working Group, established in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Environment and the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC), will ensure that the protection of human rights remains central to Nigeria’s climate response.
He explained that the body would bring together government agencies, civil society organisations, academics and development partners to promote climate justice and ensure that communities most affected by climate-related disasters are not excluded from decision-making.
Representing the Minister of Environment, Dr. Iniobong Abiola Awe reaffirmed the Federal Ministry of Environment’s commitment to implementing inclusive climate policies that leave no one behind.
The Director-General of the National Council on Climate Change, Dr. (Mrs.) Omotenioye Majekodunmi, noted that flooding, migration, farmer-herder conflicts and rising temperatures have become daily realities affecting the lives, livelihoods and dignity of millions of Nigerians.
Also speaking, Founder of the Women Environmental Programme, Dr. Priscilla Achakpa, pledged continued support for climate justice, particularly for women, young people and other vulnerable groups disproportionately affected by climate change.
The Federal Commissioner for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, Aliyu Tijani Ahmed, represented by former NHRC Director, Mr. Dahiru Bobbo, reaffirmed the Commission’s commitment to protecting people displaced by climate-related disasters. The Presidency, through the Special Assistant to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Climate Change, Comrade Yussuf Olatunji Kelani, also pledged support for the Working Group’s activities.
The NHRC maintained that the inauguration of the Working Group represents a commitment to ensuring that Nigeria’s climate response prioritises the protection of human dignity, rights and livelihoods, stressing that safeguarding the environment must go hand in hand with protecting the people most affected by climate change.
