Peggy Hicks, Director, Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures and Right to Development Division, UN Human Rights Office: "The climate crisis affects every person and every right in one way or another. The planet, if it isn't inhabitable, will obviously ultimately be the ultimate human rights crisis."
Paulina Jalaksova, Board Member, European Youth Forum: "Climate change causes our environment to be basically uninhabitable. And this means that we cannot enjoy our human rights, especially our basic human rights."
Umar Al Qadri, Chairperson, Irish Muslim Council: "The right to life, to live, the right to have housing and shelter, accommodation, all of these rights are directly affected by the climate crisis."
Michael O'Flaherty, Director, EU Agency for Fundamental Rights: "People uprooted from the places they call home and forced to head to other regions, other parts of the world. That's all about human rights."
Tena Simonovic Einwalter, Ombudswoman, Croatia and Chair, Equinet: "Because it relates to our rights to health, right to life, but also various other rights, but also it's an equality issue."
John Morrison, CEO, Institute for Human Rights and Business: "The victims of climate change tend to be in the poorest countries around the world, and the people least responsible for the amounts of carbon in our atmosphere."
Noomi Anyanwu, Founder and Chairwoman, Black Voices Volksbegehren: "Climate crisis is critically and really strongly linked with racism as well. So it's a system that was built on colonial systems."
Paul Tighe, Secretary General, Pontifical Council for Culture: "And unless we address those issues and motivate all the stakeholders including the human rights community, then we're not going to be able to do that."
Bénédicte Charrier, Advocacy Officer, Chemins d'Avenirs: "What should be done first should be to listen to what the grassroot organisations have to say and are already quite yelling, maybe on the streets or when they do lobbying actions."
Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar, Chair, Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, European Parliament: "Time is essential and it's running against us. And that means that the European Union has to act globally. The sooner the better. The most effective, the better."
Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, Gdansk Mayor: "We need to change the law, push the business, the companies, but also change our everyday life."
Line Niedeggen, Communications and Strategy, Fridays for Future: "To address the climate crisis, we have to rethink the whole system of advocacy, of politics, of investing, of economy, all based on this whole idea that nature and humans can be exploited. So tackling the climate crisis, at the same time tackles human rights issues and vice versa."
