Climate Change Impacts and Human Rights of Rural Women in Bangladesh

• Author: Kamrul Hossain & Noor Jahan Punam
• Pages: 493-514

493

Climate Change Impacts

and Human Rights of Rural

Women in Bangladesh

Kamrul Hossain an d Noor Jahan Punam

Introduction .................................................................................................493

I. Climate Change Impacts on Women in Bangladesh ............................. 496

A. Status of Women in Rural Bangladesh ............................................ 498

B. Examples of Vulnerability to Climate Change in

Bangladeshi Women ....................................................................... 500

II. Human Rights Norms Applicable to Climate Change Impacts

on Women ........................................................................................... 504

III. Human Rights Standards Applicable to Women in Bangladesh ............ 507

IV. Challenges to Safeguarding Women’s Rights in Bangladesh ..................509

Conclusion ................................................................................................... 513

Introduction

Climate cha nge and human rights are interconnected. e United Nations

Human R ights Council declared in 2008 that climate change “poses

an immediate and far-reaching threat” for the “f ull enjoyment of human

rights.”1  is connection between climate change and human rights was sub-

sequently armed by the Oce of the United Nations High Commissioner

for Human Rights (OHCHR ) in a comprehensive report published in 2009.2

Since that time, an extensive body of scholarly writing has analyzed the inter-

relationship between climate change and human rights as well as the adverse

impacts of climate change on the enjoyment of basic human rights.3

1. United Nations Human Rights Council Res. 7/23, Human Rights and Climate Change, 7th Sess.

(2008), http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/climatechange/docs/Resolution_7_23.pdf. See also

United Nations Human Rights Council Res. 10/4, 10th Sess., U.N. Doc. A/HRC/10/L.11 (2009),

https://www.un.org/ruleoaw/les/edited_versionL.11Revised.pdf.

2. Report of the Oce of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Relationship

Between Climate Change and Human Rights, U.N. Human Rights Council, 10th Sess., Provisional

Agenda Item 2, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/10/61 (2009).

3. See, e.g., Timo Koivurova et al., Climate Change and Human Rights, in 21 I G: C-

 P  L  J, 287–325 (Erkki J. Hollo & Kati Kulovesi eds., 2013); Marc

Limon, Human Rights and Climate Change: Constructing a Case for Political Action,33 H. E.

Chapter 18

494 Climate Justice

is growing awareness of the consequences of climate change can be

traced to the scientic community, especially the Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) Fifth Assessment Report.4 e IPCC Fif th

Assessment Report notes an escalation of the level of probability of the

impacts, such as the worsening of the severity of drought, the acceleration of

land degradation a nd desertication, the intensication of oods and tropi-

cal c yclones, and an increase in many infectious diseases in vulnerable and

fragile key areas of the earth. Scientists argue that the risks of climate change

are closely linked to social instability.5 e risks disproportionately impact

the most vulnerable people and communities who in most ca ses suer from

lack of societal infrastructure to adapt to the change, or are unable to adapt

because of both the variation in the change as well as sociocultural norms

and practices.

e impacts of climate cha nge have made Bangladesh one of the most

vulnerable countries along with severa l low-lying small island nations.6 e

country is regarded as one of the biggest delta s at the conuence of a num-

ber of large rivers including t he Padma, Jamuna, and Meghna.7 e densely

populated country has a 147,610 km2 area8 inhabited by approximately 160

million people9—the third most populated countr y in Southeast A sia after

India a nd Pakist an.10 Around 10,000 km2 of its land territory are covered

with water11 by virtue of the presence of various inland water bodies, and

approximately 700 small and big rivers owing to the south to the Bay of

L. R.439 (2009); John H. Knox,LinkingHuman Rights and Climate Changeat the UN, 33 H.

E. L. R. 477 (2009).

4. IPCC, C C 2013: T P S B. C  W G

I   F A R   I P  C C

(2013)), http://www.climatechange2013.org/images/report/WG1AR5_ALL_FINAL.pdf.

5. Alex Kirby, Climate Change “Makes Violence Likelier,” C N N, Mar. 31, 2014,

http://climatenewsnetwork.net/climate-change-makes-violence-likelier/. See also Solomon M. Hsiang

& Marshall Burke, Climate, Conict, and Social Stability: What Does the Evidence Say?, 123 C

C 39 (2014).

6. For further discussion of the issue, see O   H R   L D-

 C, L D C,  S I D S,

T I  C C   D P   L D

C  S I D S (2009), http://unohrlls.org/custom-content/

uploads/2013/ 11/e-Impact-of-C limate-Change-on -e-Development-Pros pects-of-the-Lea st-

Developed-Countries-and-Small-Island-Developing-States1.pdf.

7. S.M. I H  J U M. S, T S  B 15 (2013).

8. Bangladesh Ministry of Education, Bangladesh Country Prole, http://www.moedu.gov.bd/old/ban-

gladesh.htm (last visited Aug. 23, 2016).

9. U.S. C I A, T W F (2015).

10. J R. W, P: A I  C   50 (12th ed. 2016).

11. U.S. Library of Congress, Geography of Bangladesh, http://countrystudies.us/bangladesh/23.htm (last

visited Aug. 23, 2016).