From 16 June to 9 July 2025, SGI representatives participated in the fifty-ninth session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC59) in Geneva, contributing to critical discussions on climate change and human rights education.

Environment and Climate Change

On 30 June 2025, the session featured a panel discussion on human rights and climate change that focused on a just transition. Alongside the panel, UN Special Rapporteur Elisa Morgera presented a groundbreaking report on "The imperative of defossilizing our economies." The report clarifies states' international human rights obligations and businesses' responsibilities to phase out fossil fuels within the current decade.

Morgera emphasized that "the interlinked, intergenerational, severe and widespread human rights impacts of the fossil fuel life cycle, coupled with six decades of climate obstruction, compel urgent defossilization of our whole economies, for a just transition that is effective, human rights-based and transformative in protecting the climate, nature, water and food on which life and health for present and future generations depend."

The report outlines comprehensive human rights impacts across the entire fossil fuel life cycle, connecting evidence on the climate crisis, toxic pollution, biodiversity loss and harmful petrochemical production. It emphasizes that fossil fuel burning remains the main driver of greenhouse gas emissions, with impacts extending far beyond the energy sector through system-wide transformation needs.

During the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur, Flore Ghetti of SGI delivered a joint statement on behalf of the Geneva Interfaith Forum on Climate Change, Environment and Human Rights (GIF). The statement strongly supported the Special Rapporteur's findings, declaring, "The report's call for 'defossilization' resonates deeply with our interfaith perspective that recognizes the interconnectedness of climate, human rights and spiritual values."

The GIF statement particularly commended the acknowledgment of systematic violations of Indigenous Peoples' rights and called for urgent implementation of immediate, participatory defossilization plans. It emphasized that the transition must address "green and blue colonization" to ensure renewable energy projects do not repeat the same patterns of rights violations.

The HRC adopted its annual resolution on human rights and climate change, this year focusing on climate finance. While the resolution positively recognizes climate finance as a human rights tool when prioritizing equity and justice, and includes the right to a clean, healthy environment while calling on financial institutions to respect human rights, it disappoints by failing to explicitly mention an equitable transition from fossil fuels as the main driver of climate change. The resolution also regrettably ignores the vital role of environmental human rights defenders in climate action, despite their fundamental importance, as recognized by international courts, and their status as one of the most at-risk groups globally. This exclusion undermines the possibility of achieving true climate justice.

Human Rights Education

Elisa Gazzotti of SGI engaged at the Human Rights Council as chair of the NGO Working Group on Human Rights Education and Learning (NGO WG on HREL), participating in several key sessions throughout the council period.

On 19 June, SGI co-sponsored an oral statement delivered by the Luis De La Calle Foundation, a member of the NGO WG on HREL, during the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Farida Shaheed. The statement highlighted the importance of music as a core pedagogical tool in the Fifth Phase of the World Program for Human Rights Education. “Music fosters empathy, resilience and a shared sense of humanity,” De La Calle emphasized. Shaheed’s report focused on the right to be safe in education.

On 25 June, at the margin of the HRC, Gazzotti conducted a workshop together with the UN Office for Human Rights during the summer school organized by OIDEL, a member of the NGO WG on HREL. The summer school was held at UNESCO in Geneva, Switzerland and concluded with participants attending the Human Rights Council. The session featured the story of Maselina from "Changemakers: Stories of Young Human Rights Educators," with around 20 participants from different backgrounds and ages.

Additionally, Human Rights Osaka, a member of the NGO WG on HREL, together with the UN Office for Human Rights and the International Department of the Iranian Independent National Institution for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, invited Gazzotti to deliver a module on human rights education to a group of PhD students based in Iran during an online summer school. The session included the video of Maselina from "Changemakers: Stories of Young Human Rights Educators" to introduce human rights education and disability, concluding with the message that "HRE starts in our immediate environment and the importance of respecting and treasuring the person in front of us."