In partnership with its members, the national human rights institutions (NHRIs) of Australia and Fiji, the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF) co-hosted a side event during Pacific Pre-COP31 on the role of NHRIs in addressing climate change.

The discussion took place ahead of COP31, which will be held in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November 2026, with the government of Australia holding the Presidency for negotiations. APF Executive Director Thuy Doan-Smith opened and moderated the session with remarks on the role of NHRIs and regional climate trends. She introduced the work of the APF, explained why NHRIsare important in both the Pacific and climate change contexts, and set the scene for the discussion that followed. The APF brings together 26 NHRIs across Asia Pacific,with climate change being one of three thematic human rights priorities, alongside gender equality and human rights defenders and civic space.

Sébastien Gillioz, Deputy Regional Representative at the OHCHR Pacific Regional Office, briefly addressed the ICJ Advisory Opinion on climate change. The NHRIs of Fiji and Australia followed with their NHRI experiences in addressing climate change.

Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission (FHRADC) Commissioner Chantelle Khan told participants that climate action must do more than address environmental impacts. It must protect communities whose rights, livelihoods and wellbeing are affected. Climate change, she said, is a human rights issue, particularly for communities facing damage to homes, crops and livelihoods, and reduced access to natural resources.

"When climate impacts affect people's rights, dignity and wellbeing, they become human rights issues," Commissioner Khan said.

Commissioner Khan described a rights-based approach as one that asks who is responsible when communities are harmed, how further harm can be prevented and what remedies are available. She pointed to the Commission's 2023 climate change and human rights scoping project, which involved consultations across eight provinces, 27 villages and about 185 people, including women, older people, persons with disabilities, farmers and fishers.

Climate impacts are not experienced equally, she said, with vulnerable communities often facing greater risks. Commissioner Khan raised concerns about waste dumping affecting coastal communities and women who depend on fishing to feed their families, and said planned relocation must go beyond moving people from one location to another to consider land, livelihoods, culture, identity and the rights of relocated communities and customary landowners.

"Climate justice should be measured not only by policies and commitments but also by whether communities can continue to live with dignity, security, and hope," she said.

Katie Kiss, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), shared the Commission's experience of addressing climate change. Commissioner Kiss said NHRIs have a legislated role to hold governments to account for their human rights obligations, and act as a bridge between communities, civil society, business and government while operating independently of each. As the ICJ Advisory Opinion and the subsequent UN General Assembly resolution make clear, she said, "the climate crisis is a human rights crisis", and the response must be underpinned by a human rights-based approach. Governments have ratified core international human rights treaties and must be accountable to those obligations as they respond to climate change, with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples foundational to protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including in the Pacific.

Commissioner Kiss said NHRIs can help communities and civil society understand, access and exercise their rights, and provide an avenue for complaints when rights are breached. This includes upholding freedom of association and expression for climate protesters, whistleblowers and human rights defenders, and the rights of First Peoples to culture, self-determination and their traditional lands and seas. She outlined the AHRC’s work on climate change, including its report Human Rights on a Warming Planet, engagement with government and Parliament on laws that affect civic space for climate action, advocacy for a national Human Rights Act that would protect the right to a healthy environment, and a national project on human rights in emergency and disaster management. The Social Justice Report 2025, drawing on national consultations with more than a thousand First Peoples, calls for stronger First Peoples' participation in law, policy and programmes. Commissioner Kiss also joined calls for more A status NHRIs in the Pacific and across the region and for consideration of a regional human rights mechanism.

Ahead of COP31, APF continues to support its members to incorporate human rights-based approaches to climate action, including through its Human Rights Community-Led Development programme, which works with Pacific NHRIs on locally grounded, participatory processes such as Talanoa so that communities' own their priorities and shape their response.

Media coverage: Fiji Sun, “Climate action must protect communities: Khan”, Katherine Naidu, 7 October 2026