New Monitoring Toolkit Launched: Advancing Rights-Based Climate Action through NHRIs

As part of the Regional Asia Pacific Programme (RAPP2): Advancing Just Transitions to Climate-Resilient and Nature-Positive Societies (2024–2026), the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI) and South Asian University (SAU) have launched a new publication:
Climate Mobility and Human Rights: A Monitoring Toolkit for NHRIs.

This Toolkit supports National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) in South Asia in operationalising a human rights-based approach to climate change mitigation and adaptation, particularly in the context of climate-induced mobility and gender-based vulnerability. It offers concrete methodologies, tools, and guiding questions for monitoring and reporting on human rights risks linked to climate impacts.

About the Toolkit

Developed in direct response to the recommendations from the earlier Gap Analysis and Needs Assessment Report, the Toolkit is structured around the FIRE Framework (Framework for Integrating Rights and Equality) and is built on five key steps:

1. Recognising the human rights impacts of climate change
2. Identifying institutional gaps in NHRI mandates and practices
3. Developing normative responses and policy actions
4. Mapping barriers to implementation
5. Creating adaptive and inclusive monitoring plans

The Toolkit includes:

• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and checklists for NHRIs
• Lived experience–inspired scenarios from across South Asia
• Guidance on integrating gender, mobility, and environmental defender protection
• A curated list of international resources and references for NHRI use

Download the Toolkit: Human Rights Based Approach to Climate Change and Mobility Toolkit for NHRIs

Foundational Report: NHRI Gap Assessment

This publication builds upon the earlier report,
Empowering National Human Rights Institutions to Advance Rights-Based Climate Action, jointly developed by RWI and the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF).

That report presented a systematic assessment of how NHRIs in Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka are engaging with climate change issues. It highlighted key gaps in institutional capacity, stakeholder engagement, and integration of gender and mobility considerations, while also providing strategic recommendations for strengthening NHRI roles in climate governance.

Read the Gap Analysis Report: : Empowering National Human Rights Institutions to Advance Rights-Based Climate Action