A/77/189 often kill more women than men. Indigenous groups are also particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of natural disasters, owing to certain risk factors such as climate change, vulnerable livelihoods, resource extraction, heal th risks, and loss of culture and identity. There is also a growing body of research demonstrating that climate change will disproportionately affect children ’s health and well-being. 19 Women and girls 47. The impacts of climate change can worsen the cycle of poverty and exacerbate situations of vulnerability for women and girls, such as gender-based discrimination in access to land, natural resources, financial services, social capital and technology, leaving them with limited or no assets to utilize in the case of natural hazards or disasters. While global sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics on migration in relation to climate change are limited, figures on internal displacement can shed some light on population movements associated with climate change, with some reports estimating that approximately 80 per cent of people currently displaced by climate related events are women and girls. Moreover, as women are 4 per cent more likely than men to live in extreme poverty, the impacts of climate change, including slow onset effects, may lead to higher numbers of women migrating as a result of decreasing crop productivity, increasing water shortages and rising sea levels. 20 48. While migration may be an opportunity for increased autonomy and independence for some women, it may also expose them to risks. The increase in gender-based violence in the aftermath of disasters is well documented, in particular against women and girls who are displaced and those living in camps or other places without privacy. Domestic violence, intimate partner violence, sexual abuse and exploitation, and forced and early marriage also increase significantly during climate crises. 21 Women and girls face a heightened risk of gender-based violence and child marriage, negative impacts on maternal and neonatal health and a greater burden of unpaid care and domestic work. 22 49. Climate change is linked to other drivers of migration, such as women’s lack of access to information and resources and the disproportionate burden of unpaid care work on women, especially single mothers and women with dependants, which includes the responsibility for fetching water and fuel, as well as the challeng e of seeking paid work. Climate change-related migration is also linked to human trafficking. Human trafficking does not always involve migration, but traffickers often exploit migrant women and girls who take risks to find work and shelter. Individuals, including women, leave their homes to flee poverty and unemployment, criminal violence, armed conflict or natural disasters, which can make them vulnerable to exploitation. As climate change affects the physical and social environments, and the incidence of natural disasters increases, more people will move and may be at risk of being trafficked. 23 Children 50. When sudden or slow-onset processes result in large-scale migration, children may be separated from their cultural heritage and face barriers in g aining access to schools, adequate health-care facilities and other necessary goods and services. __________________ 19 20 21 22 23 12/23 Submission by the Center for the Human Rights of Children, Loyola University School of Law. Submission by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women). Ibid. See https://migrationnetwork.un.org/events/approaches-gender-responsive-gcm-implementationcontext-migration-and-climate-change. See https://giwps.georgetown.edu/resource/women-and-climate-change/. 22-11278