In 2013, a family from the small Pacific Island country of Kiribati left their home in Tarawa, Kiribati and headed to New Zealand. Ioane Teitiota and his family became the first to apply for refugee status due to the impacts of climate change – stating that climate change had created unsuitable living conditions in Kiribati and had devastated the island so much that it was no longer safe for them to live there. A primary concern of Teitiota and other I-Kiribati is sea level rise, seeing as the islands of Kiribati sit only 2 – 3 meters above sea level. Kiribati is just one country and community out of many impacted by climate change in this way. The story of Kiribati is familiar in nearby islands, including Tuvalu, Fiji, Tonga, and others. The Pacific islands make up only 0.03% of global emissions, yet they continue to bear the brunt of the impacts, and they remain as one region in the forefront of the climate crisis. In turn, people are displaced from their communities either by force or necessity – and this phenomenon is not unique to the Pacific.

Mexico is fighting a fierce battle over the cultivation of genetically modified maize. With maize being the main food source and having deep cultural meanings, Mexican civil society is concerned about its biodiversity, possible risks to human health and access to food.

20 years ago the final declaration of the World Conference on Human Rights (1993) in Vienna not only reinforced the universality of human rights, it also acknowledged the indivisibility, and thereby the coherence and interdependency of the various human rights. Since then we have seen an unmistakable increase in the significance of the long-neglected economic, social and cultural human rights (ESCR).

The following paper by Michael Krennerich will cursorily follow up on the change in significance over the past few decades.

A human rights approach to the consequences of the economic crisis in Spain and the demands of the Indignados movement Since 2008, the global economy is experimenting a severe downturn: a deep financial and economic crisis has spread globally. This crisis is having devastating effects on lives and livelihoods across the world, threatening the whole

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