UN Human Rights-supported Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance Selects University of Oxford as Academic Partner

December 10, 2023

Demi Lovato, Cyndi Lauper, Annie Lennox, Carole King, Laura Pausini, Rob Thomas, Jeff Bridges and More Ignite COP28 Right Here, Right Now Campaign

DUBAI, UAE, December 8, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- At the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance (RHRN), a multi-year international climate justice initiative supported by global partner United Nations Human Rights (UNHR), announced the University of Oxford has been selected as Right Here, Right Now Academic Partner. As part of the multi-year initiative, the prestigious university will co-host the 2025 Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit with UNHR. The global summit in Oxford, UK will include satellite events staged by supporting universities around the world, as well as an all-star awareness concert co-hosted by the Recording Academy®, United Nations Human Rights, and the University of Oxford.


“With our well-established and world-leading expertise in climate related research, the University of Oxford is proud to be the Academic Partner for the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to co-host this pivotal summit, bringing together leaders in human rights and climate research from around the world, across a wide range of disciplines, with the common goal of finding solutions to one of the most pressing issues of our times, climate change,” said Irene Tracey, Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford. 


RHRN and UNHR unveiled the first iteration of the Human Rights Climate Commitments (HRCC), a groundbreaking initiative for rights-based climate action inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights instruments. This global initiative facilitated by UNHR and the University of Colorado Boulder is based on the specific human rights obligations and responsibilities of states and other actors, including businesses. The HRCC are tailored to specific human rights duty-bearers, including states, sub-national governments, businesses, and educational institutions. They will be updated periodically to reflect the latest science and highest standards creating a continually self-renewed virtuous cycle of opportunities for duty-bearers to increase the ambition of their commitments to rights-based climate action. In the build-up to COP29, duty-bearers will be asked to take on these commitments and announce their pledges. Pledges will be monitored for compliance and the results will be publicly reported. The HRCC has been shepherded by S. James Anaya, Distinguished International Law Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, and a former UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples. 


RHRN also revealed that its celebrity driven COP28 campaign for climate justice commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights including Demi Lovato, Cyndi Lauper, Annie Lennox, Carole King, Laura Pausini, Rob Thomas, Jeff Bridges, Chelsea Handler and more has reached over a 300 million social media followers. 


Other RHRN partners represented at the press conference included Panos A. Panay, President of the Recording Academy®, RHRN’s Global Music Partner, and Chantel Sausedo, VP Artist Relations of the Recording Academy.


“We are thrilled that the University of Oxford will serve as the Academic Partner for the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, and co-host the second Right Here Right Now Global Climate Summit next year at Oxford,” said Ben Schachter, Coordinator of the Environment and Climate Change Team at United Nations Human Rights. “The first edition of the Human Rights Climate Commitments being shared today is the product of a consultative, multistakeholder process initiated in the leadup to and informed by the first Right Here Right Now Global Climate Summit organized at the University of Colorado Boulder. We are excited to continue working on these iterative, collective commitments in the years to come through a process of ongoing consultation that will ensure they evolve along with our understanding of climate change and its impacts on human rights.”


“At COP28, we are so pleased to announce the progress that Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance has made in the development of several of our climate justice initiatives, including the Human Rights Climate Commitments, which will provide a unique human rights framework for government and business leaders, human rights advocates, climate experts, and universities to kickstart critical action to address the human rights crisis resulting from climate change. We are also honored that the University of Oxford ‘answered the call’ to become our global Academic Partner and co-host the 2025 Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit with United Nations Human Rights,” said David Clark, Founder and CEO of the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance.


ABOUT RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW GLOBAL CLIMATE ALLIANCE
Since its launch in 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow, the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance has emerged as the largest public-private partnership addressing climate change as a human rights issue, bringing together human rights experts, scientists, corporate leaders, NGOs, academics, advocates, and people around the globe in the fight for rights-based climate action. In addition to the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit and Human Rights Climate Commitments, next year the alliance will introduce more global initiatives with best-in-class partners in sport, music, education, and technology. The Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance has garnered support from celebrities that include Leonardo DiCaprio, Quincy Jones, Celine Dion, Cher, Jeff Bridges, Camila Cabello, Ellen DeGeneres, Edward Norton, Annie Lennox, Cyndi Lauper, Pitbull, LL Cool J, Joss Stone, Kesha, and Jack Black, to name just a few. For more information, visit: www.righthererightnow.global


ABOUT UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (“United Nations Human Rights”) is the leading United Nations entity on human rights with a unique mandate to promote and protect all human rights for all people. Under the leadership of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, with a staff of 1,500 working in more than 100 countries, it aims to make human rights a reality in the lives of people everywhere. For more information, visit: www.ohchr.org

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Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance extends condolences to victims of historic Boulder, Colorado fires, and calls upon leaders to address human rights implications of climate change

February 3, 2022
BOULDER, CO, January 3, 2022 -- The United Nations Human Rights-supported Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, an international initiative to promote climate change as a human rights crisis, extends its deepest sympathies to the victims of the historic Boulder, Colorado fires that were fueled by record dryness and 100+ mph winds. In light of over 35,000 evacuations and destruction of 1,000 homes, the alliance applauds first responders, as well as the local, state, and federal response, while calling upon civic leaders and organizations to address widespread human rights implications from this and other catastrophic climate change-related events rapidly increasing around the world. As global warming accelerates climate change, expert scientists and meteorologists suggest the Boulder fires are yet more evidence of the climate emergency intensifying natural disasters and their impact on people’s human rights. The alliance is launching a worldwide initiative to focus on climate change as a human rights crisis, since it disproportionately affects the poor and marginalized, and vulnerable populations including people of color, women, children, the elderly, indigenous peoples, minorities, migrants, rural workers, and persons with disabilities, among others. “Our heart goes out to victims of the Boulder fires and the innocent people suffering from this crisis. It’s critical that we view climate change through a human rights lens and address obligations of society to respect, protect, fulfill and promote human rights for all persons without discrimination, especially communities on the frontline of climate change,” said David Clark, Founder of Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance. With generous support from Global Partner United Nations Human Rights, the alliance is working with academic institutions, policymakers, NGOs, corporations, scientists, technologists, and the art and entertainment communities on initiatives that address limiting greenhouse gas emissions, ensuring equal access to housing and resources, innovation in early-warning systems, adaptation and mitigation planning, and much more. United Nations Human Rights represents the world’s commitment to the promotion and protection of the full range of human rights and freedoms set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Under the leadership of the High Commissioner, and with a staff of 1,500 working in more than 90 countries, United Nations Human Rights aims to make human rights a reality in the lives of people everywhere. United Nations Human Rights and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) will also host the inaugural Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit in Boulder on December 1 – 4, 2022. The summit is being designed to engage human rights, scientific, political, educational, cultural and industry leaders to commit to specific goals that will help to slow climate change and address its adverse effects on human rights. As media around the world reported on these historic Boulder, Colorado fires that razed entire communities to the ground, the setting of Boulder as the destination for this summit is more poignant than ever. Ranked #1 in the world in earth science and atmospheric science, CU was selected by the alliance to host the global summit. For more than half a century, CU Boulder has been a leader in climate and energy research, interdisciplinary environmental studies and human rights programs, and has engaged in sustainability practices on campus and beyond. CU Boulder is co-hosting the event as part of its comprehensive public research mission and global leadership in research related to the environment, behavioral sciences and issues related to human rights. In November 2021 major celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio, Cher, Quincy Jones, Billy Porter, Camila Cabello, Pitbull, Cyndi Lauper, and Ellen DeGeneres teamed up in a social media blitz to help launch the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance and support United Nations Human Rights with an urgent plea for leaders assembled at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow to view climate change as a human rights crisis. Leonardo DiCaprio, an Academy Award®-winning actor and advocate for environmental issues, tweeted, “Homes, lands, health, and lives of those most affected by climate change are at risk. Join the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance and global partner @unhumanrights in calling for the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow @cop26uk to treat #ClimateChange as the #HumanRights crisis it is. By working together and supporting inclusive rights-based climate action for people and the planet, we can realize a better, more sustainable future for all.” # # # Contact: Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance Rebekah Alperin reb@gostoryboard.com +1.310.770.1045