The Development of the Climate Change Framework Within the UN With Particular Attention to Human Rights; Central and Eastern European Perspective

This article analyses the evolution of the international legal framework on climate change in relation to human rights, with a particular focus on Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Demonstrating that human rights and climate systems have evolved separately over a period of time, the article analyses how UN bodies, in particular the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly, have gradually recognised the impact of climate change on rights such as the right to life, health and property. The article characterises the CEE countries covered by the analysis from the perspective of transition and its consequences to date. Achieving a zero-carbon economy by 2050, as desired by the EU, or fulfilling the commitments imposed on countries in the Paris Agreement, is conditioned, among other things, by the economic situation of the country. One aspect of incorporating human rights into climate policy is judicial protection and the role that courts are beginning to play in it by adjudicating cases. This is confirmed by the data cited in the article, which points to a growing number of court cases (heard before national and international courts) in which human rights obligations are invoked to push countries to take more decisive mitigation and adaptation measures. The article proposes a number of recommendations, one of which is the development of a transparent national and international legal framework. The findings highlight the dynamic interrelationship between climate policy and human rights and call for the creation of more coherent regional and national frameworks that take human rights into account in a meaningful way in climate policy.