A/77/189 39. When well governed, migration becomes a safe and accessible choice and can help people to adapt to environmental and climate change pressures. Making humane migration part of the solution is an important practice to address the climate emergency. Furthermore, there is a need to mitigate the adverse environmental and climate drivers that compel people to move, address and reduce the risk s and vulnerabilities of migration, and boost community resilience to avert, minimize and address displacement. The extent to which migration can be a positive adaptation experience will be influenced by gender, age, race, disability status and other relev ant factors. 12 40. Existing international frameworks, mechanisms and practices to govern safe and regular migration in relation to climate change are limited, and those that do exist have not all adequately integrated a gender-responsive approach. Addressing the linkages among gender, age, race, disability status, climate change and migration requires an integrated multisectoral approach that brings together global, regional, national and local efforts in order to ensure that political commitments are trans lated into concrete actions. 13 It is equally important to take into account procedures to assess admission and stay claims submitted by migrants in situations of vulnerability that should be people-centred and child-sensitive, and uphold international human rights, including the prohibition of discrimination. States should put in place human rights-based, gender-responsive and child-sensitive procedural safeguards to ensure that all migrants are able to present their cases on the basis of equality and non-discrimination. 14 2. People living in vulnerable areas 41. As previously stated by the former Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, no country is safe from slow-onset and sudden-onset events. However, some circumstances are more conducive to climate change-related migration. Available data indicates that nearly 1 billion people live in areas “highly to very highly” exposed to climatic hazards. Vulnerable places bordered by major rivers, such as the Ganges, Indus and Brahmaputra, are highly susceptible to glacier melt and reductions in snowfall but are also densely populated. Likewise, sea-level rise poses a particular threat to deltas, large urban settlements and major infrastructure along the coast, as it is estimated that 13 per cent of cities are located in low -lying coastal zones, and particularly in small island developing States, where the ability to retreat to higher ground is limited. Rising sea levels will greatly increase risks from storm surges and tropical cyclones, in particular for highly exposed small island developing States and low-lying coastal zones. Regions at risk also include Arctic ecosystems, dry lands and, more generally, the least developed countries, which have systems that are less adapted to cope with climate change. 15 42. According to the Nansen Initiative, Latin America is among the areas of greatest fragility and vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, together with the African Sahara region. The most vulnerable countries identified are: Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti and Honduras. In Central America, one of the impacts of slow-onset events of climate change is that a significant part of the movement of people is caused by droughts in the region ’s dry corridor. In this regard, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations hig hlighted that drought-related food insecurity in the dry corridor of Central America has left __________________ 12 13 14 15 10/23 Submission by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women). Ibid. See www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/2022-01/guidance_note_migrants_in_situations_of_ vulnerabilty_2021.pdf. Submission by the Carlos III University of Madrid. 22-11278