Coastal Cities Towns & Settlements on the Front Line: Protecting People from Sea-Level Rise – Towards a human rights agenda for liveable, inclusive and resilient cities | HRC63 Side Event

About this Event

Coastal cities, towns and settlements concentrate populations, housing, essential infrastructure, economic activity, cultural heritage and public services. They are also places where sea-level rise interacts with storm surges, erosion, extreme rainfall, land subsidence and salinization. The result is not only physical risk, but also growing pressure on urban liveability and the effective enjoyment of human rights.

Exposure is not evenly distributed. People living in informal settlements or inadequate housing often occupy higher-risk land, lack security of tenure and have more limited access to drainage, safe drinking water, sanitation, health care, transport, insurance and social protection mechanisms. The same flood may therefore produce radically different consequences depending on income, gender, age, disability, migration status, ethnic origin, location and the quality of public services.

Women and girls, children and young people, older persons, persons with disabilities, Indigenous Peoples, people of African descent, small-scale fishers, migrants and displaced persons, and households living in poverty may face additional barriers to accessing information, early warnings, shelters, assistance, participation and remedy. At the same time, these people and communities possess knowledge, networks and capacities that are indispensable to designing effective responses.

The Human Rights Council laid an important foundation through resolution 60/20, led by the Dominican Republic and the Core Group, by recognizing the effects of sea-level rise on the enjoyment of human rights. Recent international advisory opinions on climate change reinforce the legal framework for due diligence, prevention, cooperation and protection. The next step could be to develop a complementary and operational agenda on coastal cities, towns and settlements and affected people, without duplicating the existing mandate.

Urban resilience cannot be measured solely by infrastructure built or assets protected. It must also be measured by the capacity to keep people safe, preserve their rights and prevent adaptation from deepening inequalities or causing coercive displacement.

To promote a policy-oriented and practical dialogue on how to protect the rights, dignity and livelihoods of people living in coastal cities and settlements exposed to sea-level rise, this side event will explore possible elements for a future Human Rights Council initiative on sea-level rise and human rights focused on urban and local action. The side event will aim towards:

• Understanding urban risk by analyzing how sea-level rise affects housing, water and sanitation, health, food, education, work, mobility, culture and access to essential services; minimizing inequalities by identifying why certain people, neighborhoods and settlements face disproportionate impacts and which barriers limit their capacity to anticipate, respond and recover;
• Strengthening local governance by examining the role of mayors’ offices, subnational governments, public service providers and community organizations in spatial planning, early warning, adaptation and social protection
• Preventing harmful responses by promoting safeguards against forced evictions, coercive displacement, loss of livelihoods, exclusion from decision-making and other forms of maladaptation.
• Mobilizing cooperation by identifying ways to ensure that financing, technology, data and technical assistance effectively reach cities and communities with limited capacities; and
• Exploring a normative pathway by identifying areas of convergence and options that could inform, if sufficient support exists, a future complementary resolution of the Human Rights Council.

Environment @ HRC63

The 63rd regular session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC63) will take place in Geneva from 7 September to 7 October 2026. Consult this regularly-updated page that highlighted the environmental-related activities of this session.

Participation

This event is to participants accredited to the 63rd session of the Human Rights Council.

Video

Live from Palais des Nations

Links

• Environment @ 63rd Session of the UN Human Rights Council
• Sea-Level Rise and the Role of Geneva