The final event of the “Right-Based Climate Adaptation in Armenia and Georgia” project was held. Within the framework of the project, the Armenian team, using the toolkit developed by Lund University and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden, prepared a draft report entitled “Promoting Right-Based Climate Adaptation in the Water Sector of the Armenian Economy: The Right to Water”. The draft report presents the key findings and joint conclusions of the team, which included representatives of Armenia’s public administration sector, among them Marie Chakryan, Legal Advisor at the Ministry of Environment, and Silva Ayvazyan, Coordinator of the Aarhus Center of the “Armhydromet” SNCO.
Mo Hamza, Professor of Risk Management and Societal Safety at Lund University; Dr. Matthew Scott, Leader of the Human Rights and the Environment Thematic Area at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute; Ida Burguete Holmgren, Project Leader; as well as representatives of various government departments and non-governmental organizations participated in the discussion.
This initiative is based on the Paris Agreement’s call on Parties to respect, promote, and consider human rights—particularly the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities, and people in vulnerable situations and the right to development, as well as gender equality, empowerment of women and intergenerational equity when taking action to fulfill their climate change commitments.
Given the vulnerability of the water sector in the context of climate change, and the severe human and economic impacts of water scarcity, the Armenian participants of the project chose to focus on the right to water and to explore opportunities for introducing best practices to support its implementation.
The purpose of the discussion was to present the consolidated observations, recommendations, and comments contained in the draft report, the final version of which is planned for publication as a guiding document to enhance the country’s climate adaptation using a rights-based approach.
The discussion also provided an opportunity to examine rights-based approaches in an open and inclusive setting.