(VOVworld)- Vietnam has called on countries to integrate measures for protecting community health and ensuring the right to food, housing, and education into the national climate change response programs and policies.

The process should focus on gender equality and the rights of vulnerable groups such as women, children, the elderly and persons with disabilities, said Ambassador Nguyen Trung Thanh – head of the Vietnamese delegation to the United Nations (UN), the World Trade Organisation and other Geneva-based international organisations. He delivered a speech at a discussion on the impacts of climate change on the right to health on June 17. The function took place on the fringe of the 32nd session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland.  Ambassador Thanh said the multi-dimensional impacts of climate change on the right to health as shown in the OHCHR’s study are also facing Vietnam. They include sea level rise, saltwater intrusion, severe storms and droughts, and a rise in the number of diseases and patients in the summer. Vietnam is among the five nations most susceptible to climate change. Some forecasts suggest that by the end of the 21st century, temperatures in the region may rise by 2 – 3 degrees Celsius ever year, leading to a 1-metre rise in sea level which, in turn, could respectively flood 40 percent and 11 percent of the area of the Mekong and the Red River Delta. He noted that in that scenario, about 10 – 12 percent of the country’s population will be directly affected and 10 percent of the GDP will evaporate. On June 16, the UNHCR held a dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the right to health to share experience on improving the health on adolescents.