President Nasheed addressed an event at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday on the subject of human rights and climate change.
The President spoke alongside former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, and current Deputy UN High Commissioner, Kyung wha Kang.
The three spoke on the importance of climate justice and called for a new binding international treaty on climate change.
The Maldives has lead international efforts to highlight the negative impact of climate change on human rights, and to integrate human rights principles into the UN climate process.
The President used his address to speak about the importance of the outcome of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. He noted that Copenhagen was in fact enormously important for two reasons.
"First, COP15 succeeded in changing the global conversation on climate change. Prior to Copenhagen, the ongoing conflict between G77 and the industrialized countries on the issue of climate change, often reminded me of two small children, stood at the edge of a cliff, fighting over who should step back first. This conflict had ground the COP15 talks to a halt. The world was teetering on the edge," the President said.
"It was at this time that the Presidents and Prime Ministers of some twenty countries, including India, China, Brazil, Russia, the US, UK, France, Germany, South Africa and the Maldives met privately and drafted the Copenhagen Accord.
"That Accord was incredibly important because, quite simply, it marked the first time that all States, developing and developing, agreed to work together and take concerted emission mitigation action, with actions by poorer nations paid for by richer ones," the President added.
The President went on to say that Copenhagen was also important because it marked a breakthrough for the integration of human rights and climate justice principles into the climate change negotiations.
"As many of you will be aware, the Maldives led in this effort by negotiating UN resolutions 7/23 and 10/4. These resolutions defined the parameters of the relationship between human rights and climate change and called on the UNFCCC to include human rights principles inany new global agreement," the President said.
"As a result, the Copenhagen outcome text and subsequently the Cancun Agreements make explicit reference to the impacts of climate change on human rights and call on the international community to ensure that all climate change policies promote and do not undermine human
rights," he noted.
Looking to the future, President Nasheed called on the Human Rights Council should establish a new Special Procedure which would cover the key issues arising from human rights, climate change and other forms of environmental degradation.
"I also believe that the Human Rights Council and the UNFCCC must work more closely together to ensure that the human rights principles now contained in the Cancun Agreements are both reflected in the final outcome of the Bali Process, and in all implementing policies at both global and national level. If not, then they will remain words on a piece of paper," the President stated.