Today, the Climate Change Law & Policy project had a panel speaking about climate change and its impacts on human rights. Although the discussion stressed the importance of addressing international human rights infringements on in the context of sovereign peoples, the speakers highlighted the importance of climate change effects on human well-being, something which affects all of us, regardless of our varied adaptive capacities in this era of globalization and interdependence.
Martin Wagner from Earth Justice led the discussion which included representation from Arctic Canada, Seychelles, Kenya, and the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights. The speakers stressed the need for focus on the doctrine of collective human rights. As important as it is to mitigate and adapt to climate change, there is even greater urgency to pay attention and give regard to the human dimension and the effects of climate change on us. After all, as the speaker from Kenya pointed out, climate change is not just an environmental problem; it is a social problem which affects us all.
Climate change related impacts have direct and indirect implications for human rights, take for example “climate refugees” and the problems with relocation. The list of human rights that can be, and already are violated and attributable to climate change impacts, is rather vast:
Right to life
Right to physical health
Right to security
Right to water
Right of all peoples to a means of subsistence
Right to property
Right to the use of traditional land
Right to the preservation of health
Right to be free from discrimination
Right to culture
Right to participate in political society
Indigenous rights
Women’s rights
This list is not exclusive, and the consequences of an infringement any of these rights will be very serious for the people affected, so how can we remove humanity and human communities from the equation?
The panel speakers highlighted the division between the Small Island States and well, the big emitters; the need to protect the most vulnerable groups; the need for equitable burden-sharing amongst and within states; the need to actually stabilise GHG concentrations so that we and our most vulnerable have time to adapt; and how to incorporate human rights into any agreements, political or legally-binding, that come out of Copenhagen this December.
So, how do we do that? The CCLP project proposes that to make moral imperatives into legal imperatives we must place an increased emphasis on adaptation measures, stronger mitigation goals (1.5°C, 350 ppm), a focus on per capita emissions rather than national emissions, safeguards against ancillary harm (i.e. from REDD), and a clear reinforcement of the principles of common but differentiated responsibilities and polluter pays.
The response from the COP must be centered on human rights by being written in the language of human rights in the COP agreement; meaning that ethical imperatives must pervade the text of the agreement. The agreement must respect our shared humanity and solidarity, and express the values of transparency and accountability. As Sheila Watt-Cloutier described it, the “atmosphere is common ground, but moreso is our shared humanity. Human Rights is the way to go.” So, stand up and be part of the solution.
Rachel Sachs
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