The Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) deeply regrets the loss of precious lives and destruction of infrastructure and livelihoods due to ongoing calamitous flooding across Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sudan. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs around 1000 people have lost their lives, over 200,000 houses are destroyed causing widespread damage to crops and livestock affecting 33 million people in Pakistan. In Afghanistan, regrettably, the death toll from flooding stands at around 200 affecting communities which were already devastated by the earthquake in June this year. Likewise, torrential rains have wreaked havoc in Sudan causing death of around 100 people and forcing thousands to abandon their flooded homes. The humanitarian situation is expected to worsen as communities and infrastructure will struggle to cope with ongoing heavy rainfall and its devastating aftermath due to imminent food shortages and spread of water borne diseases, the Commission added. The Commission is also distressed by the reports of a prolonged debilitating drought in Somalia which has caused displacement of around 1 million people and exposed 7 million to imminent hunger exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. The Commission highlights that, in recent decades, climate change and environmental degradation has adversely affected millions of people and ecosystems, natural resources, and physical infrastructure upon which they depend . The OIC Member States, as a group, are highly vulnerable to environmental changes. The situation is particularly alarming in low income developing Member States where it even represents an existential threat for many communities who are at the fore front of experiencing severe impacts of climate change. Accordingly, mitigating climate change effects and protecting vulnerable communities is crucial to ensuring fundamental rights to life, health, food and an adequate standard of living for individuals and communities in these affected areas. Therefore, these issues are not only environmental issues, but they have become human rights issues. The Commission, in dealing with the immediate and long-term impacts of such environmental disasters urges the Member States, international community and civil society to immediately collaborate in supporting national and international humanitarian relief efforts and contribute towards long term rehabilitation of the affected people.
