REDESCA calls for international cooperation in the face of the serious impacts of Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean

November 3, 2025

Washington, DC—The Office of the Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (REDESCA) of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights expresses its deep solidarity with the people and communities of the Caribbean affected by Hurricane Melissa, and recognizes the efforts of the authorities and national and community risk management systems that have acted to protect the life and integrity of the population. At the same time, it urges the international community to contribute to the adoption of the urgent and structural responses that are indispensable.

According to the information available, Melissa was presented as a hurricane of exceptional intensity, with sustained winds of great strength, significant swells and rainfall capable of producing flash floods and landslides, with special impact on low-lying coastal settlements, rural areas and sectors that already faced poverty, labor informality or precarious housing conditions. This type of extreme event directly undermines the exercise of human rights, including the rights to life and personal integrity, and the rights to health, water and sanitation, food, adequate housing, education, and to a healthy environment, among others.

REDESCA notes that international meteorological agencies have indicated that the rapid intensification of Melissa was associated with particularly favorable oceanic and atmospheric conditions in the Caribbean, which makes it more urgent to strengthen early warning systems, territorial planning with a preventive approach and the protection of coastal ecosystems. The Office of the Special Rapporteur recalls that small island States and low-lying coastal territories in the Caribbean are among those most exposed to the adverse effects of the climate emergency, despite having a very limited historical contribution to global emissions.

The Office of the Special Rapporteur underscores that each emergency of this magnitude forces many Caribbean countries to allocate extraordinary resources to response and reconstruction, often through onerous borrowing, which reduces the fiscal space available for social policies, resilient infrastructure, and environmental protection.

For this reason, REDESCA calls on the regional and international community to support national efforts for immediate humanitarian response, ensuring that aid reaches the people and groups most at risk without discrimination. Likewise, to facilitate concessional financing and specific climate financing for the rehabilitation of social infrastructure and basic services with resilience criteria and to consider, when appropriate, debt relief or restructuring instruments that allow affected countries to protect ESCER without aggravating their financial vulnerability. Similarly, in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, it is called for the strengthening of technical cooperation for integrated disaster risk management in the Caribbean.

REDESCA recalls that, in accordance with inter-American standards, States must ensure that the entire affected population has timely access to safe shelters, drinking water, health care, including mental and psychosocial health, food, education, and documentation, with a focus on equality and non-discrimination, and paying special attention to vulnerable and marginalized populations, and people living in coastal or hard-to-reach areas. It is also important to ensure the participation of communities and human rights and environmental defenders in the stages of damage assessment, planning and recovery, so that solutions are sustainable and culturally relevant.

Finally, the Office of the Special Rapporteur reiterates its full willingness to provide technical assistance to the Caribbean States and their institutions in the incorporation of inter-American human rights standards in plans for prevention, response, recovery, and post-disaster financing associated with extreme hydrometeorological events.

The Office of the Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Rights is an office created by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) with the objective of strengthening the promotion and protection of economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights in the Americas, leading the Commission's efforts in this area.

No. RD224/25

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