Authored By: Saida Alam
East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
I. Introduction
Climate change is no longer merely an environmental concern. Increasingly severe floods, storms, droughts and other climate-related disasters directly affect the enjoyment of fundamental human rights. The right to life, health, food, water, housing and an adequate standard of living may all be threatened when communities are exposed to climate-induced disasters. This relationship between climate change and human rights has become an increasingly important issue within international law.
Bangladesh provides a significant example of this challenge. In July 2026, severe monsoon rainfall, flash floods and landslides affected communities across several districts of Bangladesh. According to the United Nations, approximately 1.28 million people were affected in seven districts, while 59 deaths had been reported by 22 July. More than 74,000 houses were damaged or destroyed, while thousands of water points and latrines were damaged, creating serious risks to access to safe water and sanitation.1
The consequences of such disasters raise an important international legal question: to what extent does international law require States to protect individuals from the human rights consequences of climate change and climate-induced disasters?
This article argues that international law increasingly recognises a connection between climate change, environmental protection and human rights. However, significant gaps remain between international commitments and effective protection on the ground. The experience of Bangladesh demonstrates the need to strengthen a rights-based approach to climate adaptation, disaster-risk reduction, international cooperation and climate justice.
II. Climate Change and Human Rights under International Law
Historically, international environmental law and international human rights law developed as relatively distinct fields. Climate change was primarily addressed through instruments such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement. Human rights, meanwhile, were protected through instruments including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
The distinction between these areas has gradually weakened. Environmental degradation can directly interfere with the enjoyment of human rights. For example, extreme weather events may threaten life, destroy homes, interrupt access to food and water, and prevent individuals from obtaining healthcare and education.
The Human Rights Committee has recognised this connection in its interpretation of the right to life under article 6 of the ICCPR. In General Comment No 36, the Committee identified climate change and environmental degradation as among the most serious threats to the ability of present and future generations to enjoy the right to life.2 The Committee has further stated that States should take appropriate measures to address reasonably foreseeable threats to life.
The relationship between climate change and human rights was also recognised in the Paris Agreement. Its preamble acknowledges that, when taking climate action, States should respect, promote and consider their respective human rights obligations, including obligations concerning the right to health, children, persons with disabilities, migrants and people in vulnerable situations.3
This approach is significant because it transforms climate change from being solely a question of environmental management into a question involving the protection of individuals and communities.
III. The Emerging Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment
One of the most important developments in international environmental and human rights law is the increasing recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
In 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 48/13, recognising the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.4 The resolution represented an important development in international human rights discourse. Bangladesh itself voted in favour of the resolution.
Although a Human Rights Council resolution does not operate in the same manner as a universally binding treaty, it has considerable normative importance. It reflects growing international recognition that environmental conditions are fundamental to human dignity and the enjoyment of other human rights.
The right is particularly relevant to climate-induced disasters. A healthy environment requires more than the absence of pollution. It also requires environmental conditions that allow individuals and communities to live safely and with dignity. When floods repeatedly destroy homes, contaminate water supplies, damage agricultural land and disrupt essential services, environmental harm becomes closely connected with human rights violations.
The 2026 Bangladesh floods illustrate this connection. The United Nations reported substantial damage to water points and sanitation facilities in affected areas.5 Consequently, the impact of flooding extends beyond physical damage. It affects the conditions necessary for individuals to enjoy their rights to health, dignity, food, water and adequate living conditions.
IV. The International Disaster-Risk Reduction Framework
Human rights protection cannot depend exclusively on emergency assistance after disasters occur. International law and international policy increasingly emphasise prevention, preparedness and resilience.
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 is particularly relevant. It establishes four priorities for action: understanding disaster risk; strengthening disaster-risk governance; investing in disaster-risk reduction for resilience; and enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and recovery.6
The Framework also recognises that States have the primary role in reducing disaster risk, while responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders.7
This is important for climate-induced flooding. Effective protection should not begin only after floodwaters have risen. States should identify vulnerable populations, strengthen early-warning systems, protect essential infrastructure, improve evacuation mechanisms and integrate disaster-risk reduction into development planning.
Bangladesh has already demonstrated the potential of anticipatory action. In previous flooding situations, forecast-based mechanisms have been used to provide assistance before floodwaters reached their peak. The United Nations reported that an anticipatory-action programme in 2024 reached approximately 600,000 people with cash assistance, agricultural inputs, WASH supplies and protection services before flooding intensified.8
Such measures demonstrate that disaster management can move from a reactive model towards a preventive and rights-based model.
V. Bangladesh’s Floods as a Climate Justice Issue
The Bangladesh example also raises a broader question of climate justice.
Climate change does not affect all States equally. Some developing countries contribute comparatively little to historical greenhouse-gas emissions while experiencing substantial consequences from climate-related hazards. Bangladesh is particularly vulnerable because of its geographical characteristics, population density, river systems and exposure to floods, cyclones and other climate-related hazards.
The concept of climate justice therefore raises questions concerning fairness, responsibility and international cooperation.
The Paris Agreement reflects the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities in the light of different national circumstances.9 It also recognises the importance of climate justice in addressing climate change.10
However, the existence of international commitments does not automatically guarantee adequate protection for vulnerable populations. Developing States may face serious financial and institutional limitations in implementing resilient infrastructure, improving early-warning systems and rebuilding after disasters.
The result is an important international-law dilemma. If climate change creates foreseeable threats to human rights, can vulnerable States realistically fulfil their human-rights obligations without adequate international support?
The answer requires greater emphasis on international cooperation, adaptation finance, technology transfer and capacity building.
Climate justice should therefore not be understood merely as a question of compensation. It also concerns whether vulnerable populations receive meaningful opportunities to adapt to foreseeable climate risks and whether international institutions adequately support States facing disproportionate climate impacts.
VI. Climate-Induced Disasters and State Responsibility
An important question is whether States can incur international responsibility for failing to take adequate measures against climate-related harm.
The issue is complex. International law does not generally make a State automatically responsible every time a natural disaster occurs within its territory. Floods may result from multiple causes, including rainfall, geographical conditions, river systems and climate change.
Nevertheless, States may have positive obligations to take reasonable measures to protect individuals from foreseeable threats. Human rights law increasingly recognises that States cannot always satisfy their obligations simply by refraining from directly violating rights. They may also be required to take reasonable preventive measures.
The Human Rights Committee’s approach to the right to life supports this understanding. Climate change can create foreseeable threats to life, requiring States to take appropriate measures.11
The international legal significance of climate obligations has also become more prominent through proceedings before the International Court of Justice. The Court considered questions concerning the obligations of States in respect of climate change, including the relationship between environmental obligations and human rights.12
This development demonstrates that the international legal debate is moving beyond the question of whether climate change is scientifically established. The increasingly important question is what legal duties States have in responding to it.
VII. The Protection Gap
Despite these developments, a significant protection gap remains.
First, several important international instruments relating to disaster-risk reduction and environmental protection operate through frameworks of cooperation, policy and implementation rather than creating straightforward individual remedies. The Sendai Framework, for example, provides an important international framework but does not function as a conventional human-rights treaty creating direct individual claims.13
Second, the right to a healthy environment is not yet uniformly protected through a single universally binding treaty applicable in the same way across all States. Its recognition has developed through regional instruments, domestic constitutions and legislation, international resolutions and human-rights jurisprudence.
Third, vulnerable communities frequently face disproportionate consequences. Women, children, persons with disabilities, low-income communities and people dependent upon climate-sensitive livelihoods may experience greater difficulties during disasters. The United Nations’ 2026 gender alert concerning Bangladesh specifically identified differentiated impacts on women, girls and other vulnerable groups.14
A purely disaster-response approach therefore risks reproducing existing inequalities.
VIII. Towards a Rights-Based Approach to Climate Adaptation
The international response to climate-induced disasters should move towards a rights-based model based on five principles.
1. Prevention
States should prioritise disaster-risk assessment and preventive measures rather than relying predominantly on post-disaster relief. This includes flood-resilient infrastructure, early-warning systems, protection of wetlands and effective land-use planning.
2. Participation
Affected communities should have meaningful opportunities to participate in decisions concerning climate adaptation and disaster-risk management. International climate governance should not treat vulnerable communities merely as beneficiaries of assistance.
3. Non-discrimination
Adaptation policies should identify groups facing heightened vulnerability. Measures should specifically consider children, women, persons with disabilities, older persons and economically disadvantaged communities.
4. International cooperation
Climate-vulnerable developing States require financial, technological and institutional support. International cooperation should therefore be treated as an essential component of effective climate adaptation.
5. Accountability
States should establish transparent mechanisms for assessing whether climate and disaster-management measures adequately protect human rights. Climate policies should be measurable, reviewable and capable of meaningful public scrutiny.
These principles are consistent with the broader direction of international law. The ICJ proceedings concerning climate change demonstrate the growing importance of considering human rights when interpreting States’ climate obligations.15
IX. Conclusion
The 2026 floods in Bangladesh demonstrate that climate-related disasters are not simply environmental emergencies. They can become profound human-rights crises affecting life, health, water, sanitation, housing, food security and livelihoods. The international legal system has increasingly recognised this relationship through human-rights law, climate agreements and disaster-risk reduction frameworks.
The recognition of a right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, the Paris Agreement’s human-rights language and the growing interpretation of the right to life in the context of climate change represent important developments. The Sendai Framework further demonstrates the international community’s movement towards prevention, preparedness and resilience.
Nevertheless, a gap remains between international commitments and effective protection. Vulnerable States such as Bangladesh often face climate impacts that exceed their domestic capacity to respond. Climate justice therefore requires more than humanitarian assistance after disasters. It requires preventive action, adaptation, international cooperation, adequate financing and effective protection of human rights.
Ultimately, the international legal response to climate-induced disasters should move from reaction to prevention, from vulnerability to resilience, and from general climate commitments to enforceable rights-based protection. Bangladesh’s recent flood experience illustrates why this transition is not merely desirable but increasingly necessary.
Footnote(S):
1 United Nations in Bangladesh, Bangladesh: Situation Report #2 – Flash Flood and Landslides (23 July 2026). (The United Nations in Bangladesh)
2 Human Rights Committee, General Comment No 36: Article 6 (Right to Life), UN Doc CCPR/C/GC/36 (2018) para 62. (OHCHR)
3 Paris Agreement (adopted 12 December 2015, entered into force 4 November 2016) preamble. (UNFCCC)
4 Human Rights Council, The Human Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment, UN Doc A/HRC/RES/48/13 (8 October 2021).
5 United Nations in Bangladesh (n 1). (The United Nations in Bangladesh)
6 United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (2015).
7 ibid.
8 United Nations in Bangladesh, Anticipatory Action in Bangladesh: Acting before the floodwaters rise (28 April 2026).
9 Paris Agreement (n 3) art 2(2).
10 Paris Agreement (n 3) preamble.
11 Human Rights Committee (n 2).
12 Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change, Request for Advisory Opinion, International Court of Justice, proceedings commenced pursuant to UN General Assembly request.
13 UNDRR, Reading the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (2015).
14 United Nations in Bangladesh, Gender Alert: Bangladesh Monsoon Flood, Flash Flood, and Landslide Risks (12 July 2026).
15 Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change (n 12).
Bibliography
International Treaties and Instruments
- Paris Agreement (adopted 12 December 2015, entered into force 4 November 2016).
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (adopted 16 December 1966, entered into force 23 March 1976) 999 UNTS 171.
- International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (adopted 16 December 1966, entered into force 3 January 1976) 993 UNTS 3.
- Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (2015).
United Nations Materials
- Human Rights Council, The Human Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment, UN Doc A/HRC/RES/48/13 (8 October 2021).
- Human Rights Committee, General Comment No 36: Article 6 (Right to Life), UN Doc CCPR/C/GC/36 (2018).
- United Nations in Bangladesh, Bangladesh: Situation Report #2 – Flash Flood and Landslides (23 July 2026).
- United Nations in Bangladesh, Anticipatory Action in Bangladesh: Acting before the floodwaters rise (28 April 2026).
International Cases and Proceedings
- Ioane Teitiota v New Zealand, CCPR/C/127/D/2728/2016 (Human Rights Committee, 24 October 2019).
- Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change, Request for Advisory Opinion, International Court of Justice.
