A/70/287 outcome document adopted by the Conference of the Parties at its sixteenth session , held in Cancun, Mexico, “that Parties should, in all climate change related actions, fully respect and protect human rights”. 48 This was reiterated at the seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties, held in Durban, South Africa, in November/December 2011. 55. Furthermore, the 2014 report of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 49 addresses the impacts of climate change on people in the context of food security, health, access to water and personal security, noting that the poor and marginalized are most vulnerable. 56. The negotiations leading up to the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties, to be held in Paris in December 2015, the objective of which is to achieve a legally binding, universal agreement on climate change, are an opportunity to ensure that a human rights-based approach is adopted that identifies and satisfies the most pressing needs of vulnerable persons. A new climate agreement should strengthen the commitment made in Cancun and should in clude clear references to the human rights principles of equality, non -discrimination, accountability, participation, empowerment, solidarity and transparency. 57. In an open letter to the States parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a number of special rapporteurs, including the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, called on States to ensure full coherence between human rights obligations and efforts to address climate change and to include clear human rights language in the agreement to be concluded in Paris. 50 Most recently, at the closing plenary meeting of the eighth session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, held in February 2015 in Geneva, 18 countries signed a voluntary agreement on human rights and climate action, the Geneva Pledge for Human Rights in Climate Action, pledging to facilitate the sharing of best practice and knowledge between human rights and climate experts at the national level. 51 Legal and judicial developments 58. Significant political, legal and judicial initiatives have been taken with a view to the next round of climate negotiations to take place in Paris. For instance, a recent study involving 66 countries found that most jurisdictions have taken important legislative steps to mitigate climate change. However, despite the fact that a considerable number of climate change-related laws and regulations have been adopted in several regions, they have rarely been enforced. 59. An example of a State entity reaffirming the human rights obligation to mitigate climate change was the ruling issued by a court in the Netherlands that __________________ 48 49 50 51 15-10041 Decision 1/CP.16, para. 8. Available from https://ipcc-wg2.gov/AR5/report/full-report/. Available from www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/SP/SP_To_UNFCCC.pdf. The Ad Hoc Working Group was established by decision 1/CP.17 of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at its seventeenth session (see FCCC/CP/2011/9/Add.1). The Geneva Pledge was signed by Chile, Costa Rica, France, Guatemala, Ireland, Kiribati, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Mexico, Palau, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Samoa, Sweden, Uganda and Uruguay. The text is available from http://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/The-Geneva-Pledge13FEB2015.pdf. 15/25