CEDAW/C/GC/37 III. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and other relevant international frameworks 16. The Convention promotes and protects women’s human rights, and this should be understood to apply at all stages of climate change and disaster prevention, mitigation, response, recovery and adaptation. In addit ion to the Convention, several specific international frameworks govern disaster risk reduction, climate change mitigation and adaptation, humanitarian assistance and sustainable development, and a number of them also address gender equality. Those instruments should be read together with the provisions of the Convention. 17. In the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, of 1993, and reiterated in the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, entitled “The future we want”, of 2012, the particularly vulnerable situation of small island developing States was acknowledged and the principle of gender equality and the need to ensure the effective participation of women and indigenous peoples in all initiatives relating to climate change were reaffirmed. 18. In the Sendai Framework, it was emphasized that women and their participation were critical to effectively managing disaster risk and designing, resourcing and implementing gender-sensitive disaster risk reduction policies, plans and programmes, and that adequate capacity-building measures needed to be taken to empower women for preparedness, as well as to build their capacity to secure alternate livelihood means in post-disaster situations. Empowering women to publicly lead and promote gender-equitable and universally accessible response, recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction approaches was also emphasized. 14 19. In the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, States parties were called upon to take action on climate change on the basis of equity and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and capabilities. It was recognized that, although climate change affected everyone, countries who had contributed the least to greenhouse gas emissions, as well as people living in poverty, children and future generations, were the most affected. Climate equity required that, in global efforts to mitigate the adverse effects of and adapt to climate change, the needs of countries, groups and individuals, including women and girls, which were the most vulnerable to its adverse impacts, were prioritized. 20. In 2014, the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted decision 18/CP.20, entitled “Lima work programme on gender”, in which it established a plan for promoting gender balance and achieving gender-responsive climate policies developed for the purpose of guiding the effective participation of women in the bodies established under the Convention. In 2017, the Conference of the Parties adopted decision 3/CP.23, entitled “Establishment of a gender action plan”, in which it agreed to advance the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and promote gender-responsive climate policy and the mainstreaming of a gender perspective into all elements of climate action. 21. In the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Conference of the Parties noted that Parties should, when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable __________________ 14 6/24 General Assembly resolution 69/283, annex II, paras. 36 (a) (i) and 32, respectively. 18-03824