As Part of their Vision to Integrate Climate Justice and Human Rights Standards into Egypt’s National Climate Change Strategy 2050

 Maat and Estidama Held a High-Level Meeting for Civil Society and Climate Change Experts

Okeil: The dimension of human rights must be included as a top priority for achieving climate justice

Gad Al-Karim: Managing environmental and climate risks for investment and service projects is no longer a luxury

With the participation of about 25 national specialists in climate-related issues, civil action leaders and environmental media, both Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights and Estidama for Research and Feasibility Studies held a high-level expert meeting entitled “Integrating Human Rights and Climate Justice into the Objectives of Egypt’s National Climate Change Strategy (NCCS) 2050: Perspectives from Civil Society.”

In this context, Ayman Okeil, president of Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights, pointed to the intertwining relationship between climate change and human rights and revealed a series of efforts made by Maat through the Human Rights Council in Geneva and the High-level Policy Forum in New York to support the adoption of a human rights-based approach to climate action.

The international expert stressed the importance of including the role of international human rights mechanisms in the work on climate justice. In his intervention, Okeil stressed the importance of the role of civil society in consolidating the human rights approach, the dimensions related to justice and guarantees for the protection of vulnerable groups as part of the national climate strategy, stressing that this will inevitably lead to enhancing societal acceptance and support for the strategy and accelerating the pace of its settlement.

For his part, Dr. Walaa Gad Al-Karim, Co-founder of Estidama for Research and Feasibility Studies and a member of the National Council for Human Rights in Egypt, addressed the growing global and national orientations towards the standards of identifying and managing environmental and social risks for investment and service projects, and the increasing popularity of these standards among international financing institutions, commercial banks, private sector companies, governments and civil society, so that they can be part of efforts to face climate change risks. Al-Karim pointed out that the goal of establishing a sustainable company is to help its partners become more compatible with these standards.

Civil society leaders and participating climate action experts stressed the necessity of joining efforts to increase community participation in the follow-up and update of Egypt’s NCCS 2050, in order to go beyond the elite perspective, and highlighted the importance of paying attention to the industrial sector in the national strategy, given its substantial effect on climate change

The round table discussion was concluded with a set of recommendations, topped by the need to increase the participation of civil society in the implementation and follow-up of the national strategy for climate change, and to launch an effective media strategy that targets the Egyptian citizen directly to be part of climate action efforts through raising awareness, education, information sharing and transparency of climate-related actions. The participants also emphasized the pivotal role of capacity building, exchange of experiences, and teamwork among civil society organizations so that these organizations are able to fulfill their roles in the climate action agenda.

It is worth noting that this round table comes within the framework of the protocol signed between Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights, and Estidama for Research and Feasibility Studies to cooperate in the implementation of a number of joint projects and activities on “climate justice and the promotion of a human rights-based approach to addressing climate change issues.”