CEDAW/C/GC/37
I. Introduction
1.
Climate change is exacerbating both the risk and the impacts of disasters
globally, by increasing the frequency and severity of weather and climate hazards,
which heightens the vulnerability of communities to those hazards. 1 There is
scientific evidence that a large proportion of extreme weather events around the world
are a result of human-caused changes to the climate. 2 The human rights consequences
of such disasters are apparent in the form of political and economic instability,
growing inequality, declining food and water security and increased threats to health
and livelihoods. 3 Although climate change affects everyone, those countries and
populations that have contributed the least to climate change, including people living
in poverty, young people and future generations, are the most vulnerable to its
impacts.
2.
Women, girls, men and boys are affected differently by climate change and
disasters, with many women and girls experiencing greater risks, burdens and
impacts. 4 Situations of crisis exacerbate pre-existing gender inequalities and
compound the intersecting forms of discrimination against, among others, women
living in poverty, indigenous women, women belonging to ethnic, racial, religious
and sexual minority groups, women with disabilities, refugee and asylum -seeking
women, internally displaced, stateless and migrant women, rural women, unmarried
women, adolescents and older women, who are often disproportionately affected
compared with men or other women. 5
3.
In many contexts, gender inequalities limit the control that women and girls
have over decisions governing their lives, as well as their access to resources such as
food, water, agricultural input, land, credit, energy, technology, education, health
services, adequate housing, social protection and employ ment. 6 As a result of those
inequalities, women and girls are more likely to be exposed to disaster-induced risks
and losses relating to their livelihoods, and they are less able to adapt to changes in
climatic conditions. Although climate change mitigatio n and adaptation programmes
may provide new employment and livelihood opportunities in sectors such as
agricultural production, sustainable urban development and clean energy, failure to
address the structural barriers faced by women in gaining access to t heir rights will
increase gender-based inequalities and intersecting forms of discrimination.
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Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report —
Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Geneva, 2013). The Panel notes that climate
change “refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g. using statistical
tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an
extended period, typically decades or longer”.
Susan J. Hassol and others, “(Un)Natural disasters: communicating linkages between extreme
events and climate change”, WMO Bulletin, vol. 65, No. 2 (Geneva, World Meteorological
Organization, 2016).
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), “Climate change and disaster risk reduction”,
23 March 2016.
See Commission on the Status of Women, resolutions 56/2 and 58/2 on gender equality and the
empowerment of women in natural disasters, adopted by consensus in March 2012 and March
2014.
See, for example, general recommendation No. 27 (2010) on older women and the protection of
their human rights.
For the purposes of the present general recommendation, all references to “women” should be
read to include women and girls, unless otherwise noted.
18-03824