Context: Recently, a significant step has been taken by 48 African countries to adopt the Kampala Ministerial Declaration on Migration, Environment, and Climate Change (KDMECC) to address the interconnection between human mobility and climate change on the continent.

About the Declaration

• Background: KDMECC was originally signed and agreed upon by 15 African states in Kampala, Uganda in July 2022.

• The Declaration is the first comprehensive, action-oriented framework led by Member States to address climate-induced mobility in a practical and effective manner.

• The KDMECC-AFRICA will ensure that all voices, including those of youth, women, and persons in vulnerable situations are the priority of the expanded declaration.

• The KDMECC-AFRICA is expected to be signed by Member States during the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi on September 4, 2023.

Need

• Africa is one of the world's most vulnerable continents to the impacts of climate change.

• Climate change, which leads to an increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, has a direct impact on migration.

Significance

• The Kampala Ministerial Declaration on Migration, Environment and Climate Change gives us the unprecedented opportunity to support Member State priorities in addressing the challenges while also leveraging migration for sustainable development.

• It will ensure that all voices, including those of youth, women and persons in vulnerable situations are the priority of the expanded declaration.

Linkage between Climate change and Human Rights

• Climate change has indisputable long-term consequences on the environment, which, in turn, seriously undermine the enjoyment of human rights.

• The African continent is projected to be one of the hardest hit by the negative effects of climate change.

• The consequences of climate change are not only disproportionately felt by the most vulnerable and poorest populations; there are also disparities along gender lines.

• The connections between climate change, gender equality, and women’s rights are complicated and multidimensional.

• In contrast, most existing studies on gender and climate change action offer a narrow conception of what gender equality and women’s rights mean in the context of climate change action.

Other similar declarations

The Maputo Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources: This Convention shall apply;

• To all areas which are within the limits of national jurisdiction of any Party; and

• To the activities carried out under the jurisdiction or control of any Party within the area of its national jurisdiction or beyond the limits of its national jurisdiction.

• The Parties shall adopt and implement all measures necessary to achieve the objectives of this Convention, in particular through preventive measures and the application of the precautionary principle, and with due regard to ethical and traditional values as well as scientific knowledge in the interest of present and future generations.