A Working Group of the United Nation's Human Rights Council is supporting Tuvalu's call for greater international assistance in combating climate change and sea-level rise.
Linking climate change to human rights, members of the Working Group and other UN member observers noted the major difficulties encountered in guaranteeing the human rights of citizens likely to be closely affected by climate change.
A number of state delegations recommended that Tuvalu continue to take a lead role in lobbying for international action to combat climate change.
Some of those roles are reported to include participating in the discussion of the Human Rights Council on the relationship between human rights and climate change scheduled for March 2009.
Tuvalu's Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Labour told the Working Group that Tuvalu had unique vulnerabilities to the predicted impacts of climate change and sea-level rise.
Enele Sopoaga says consideration of human rights protection and the effects of climate change is paramount in the minds of the Government of Tuvalu.
Tuvalu is exerting every effort to cope with the adverse effects of climate change and sea-level rise.
