Upload
stefanie-rixecker
View
1.124
Download
3
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
A presentation for Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand regarding climate change and its possible impacts on human rights globally.
Citation preview
Human Rights and the EnvironmentIn the face of climate change
Stefanie RixeckerChair, GT AIANZ
PART ONE: THE ENVIRONMENT
©CSIRO
Systems & connections…• Everything is
connected• Environment depends
upon relationships• Relationships require
feedback (communication)
• Feedback can be linear effects, cumulative & synergistic
• No ‘free lunch’
Humans as part of nature…• Work within its limits
or carrying capacity• Seek to sustain the
environment in order to sustain life
• A healthy environment is a healthy people
• Often deemed a ‘traditional’ or ‘indigenous’ paradigm
All living beings are kin.
Chief Oren Lyons,Onondaga Nation
Humans as separate from nature…• Control over the
environment• Technology can solve
ecological problems• Limits exist only in the
mind• Today is everything• Short-term gains over
long-term consequences
When the environment is a resource -• Humans extract raw materials, e.g., oil, trees, fish• Humans use water & air as sinks, i.e., pollution• Humans maximise for current generations• Humans ‘externalise’ the costs of natural
resource exploitation
Environmental policy developments• 1972: UN Conference on
the Human Environment (Stockholm Conference)
• “Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being, and he [sic] bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations.”
• Recommended creation of UNEP, instrumental in developing over 30 international and regional treaties
• PRINCIPLES:• Cooperation in addressing
adverse environmental effects• Inter-generational equity in
exploitation of natural resources
• Inclusion of environmental considerations in economic development
• Need to reduce environmental pollution
• Correlation between environmental pollution & threats to health
• State responsibility for activities within their jurisdiction or control
• The obligation to compensate victims of pollution and other environmental damage
PART TWO: HR FRAMEWORKS
UDHR – Article 1
• All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
© Carter Centre
UDHR – key principles• A declaration, not a
treaty• Duties owed to
fellow human beings, not the state
• Highlights the universality and indivisibility of human rights
Children in Newtok, Alaska
© Brian Adams
UDHR Core Rights
• Civil & Political– Life, Liberty &
Security of Person
• Economic & Social– Adequate
standard of living
• “The destiny of human rights is in the hands of all our citizens in all our communities.”– Eleanor Roosevelt
Environment & HR
• Environment is the one area not explicitly noted in the UDHR
• Yet, war, torture, and grave abuses of human rights are directly linked with natural resource exploitation
Right to Quality Environment?• The ‘right to environment’
has NOT been articulated in the UDHR or the international Bill of Rights
• Only other aligned international law, Humanitarian Law, highlights:– “It is prohibited to employ
methods of warfare which are intended, or may be expected, to cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment.”
• Protocol 1, Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949
Links with other conventions• UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
– Article 24 (2)(c)--“through the adequate provision of adequate nutritious foods and clean drinking water, taking into consideration the dangers and risks of environmental pollution”
• UN Convention on Biological Diversity (1993)• UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (1994)
Further developments included• UNEP draft Principles (1978)• World Conservation Strategy
(1980)• Montevideo Programme
(1981)• World Charter for Nature
(1982)• World Commission on
Environment and Development – Brundtland Report (1987)
• UN Conference on Environment and Development – Rio Conference (1992)
Powerful international initiatives…
• International Labour Organisation’s No. 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (ILO169, 1989)– Emphasised need for
special measures to protect environment &
– Indigenous Peoples’ involvement in formulating national & regional decisions
• Hague Declaration on the Environment (1989)– “The right to live is the
right from which all other rights stem. Guaranteeing this right is the paramount duty of those in charge of all States throughout the world.”
Regional options?
• No regional instruments applicable in the Asia Pacific Region wrt ‘right to environment’
• 2x conventions that do so elsewhere are:– African Banjul Charter
on Human & Peoples’ Rights 1981
– American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social & Cultural Rights
Bhopal women’s march, 2007
Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (1998)
• Developed through the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) – Aarhus Convention
• Regarded as a ‘new’ kind of environmental agreement, linking environmental rights & human rights
• Every person has the right “to live in an environment adequate to his or her health and well-being”
• Critical aspect – participatory decision-making
Right derived from custom?In 1994, Special Rapporteur,
Mrs. Fatmah Zohra Ksentini, argued that:
• “All persons have the right to a secure, healthy and ecologically sound environment. This right and other human rights, including civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights, are universal, interdependent and indivisible.”
Resources & Subsistence Rights: Typology of conflict…
• Extraction of raw materials, e.g., oil, fisheries
• Alterations of ecosystems• Reprogramming of nature,
e.g., GMOs• Destabilization, e.g.,
climate change• Pollution of urban living
spaces• Changing prices of natural
resources
--Wolfgang Sachs, Environment & Human Rights (1993)
PART THREE: GEOGRAPHY OF CHANGE
Climate change?• Entire sub-Arctic region of
western Siberia, spanning 1m sq km, started to melt for the 1st time since it formed 11,000 years ago
• By 2100, top layer of Arctic permafrost will melt, releasing vast amounts of carbon stores
• Of the world’s 88 largest glaciers, 79 are receding
• There is more CO2 in the atmosphere than at any time in the last 650,000 years
IPCC 2007…• A very high confidence
that the globally averaged net effect of human activities since 1750 has been of warming…
• Warming of the climate system is unequivocal…
• Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations…
UN Climate Change Conference 2007,Bali, Indonesia – 3 to14 December
• “As a global environmental hazard, climate change affects the enjoyment of human rights as a whole and therefore, it is at the core of the indivisible, interdependent and interrelated nature of each and all human rights as initially emphasized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”– OHCHR, 2007
Oxfam at Bali Conference
© IISD
Climate Change Impacts
• Intensified diseases• Weather extremes• Sea level rise• Forced migration• Livelihood loss• Cultural loss• Food insecurity• Ecosystem collapse
The ‘Resource Curse’
Environmental Refugees
• No international convention addresses this refugee category
• International infrastructure currently uses ‘environmentally displaced persons’
• Need for a new legal architecture
Displaced peoples & destabilization• 22 million people
displaced due to war & persecution
• 25 million displaced due to environmental impacts
• By 2010, estimated 50 million displaced persons due to environmental change– Norman Myers,
Oxford
Face of the future?• Arctic & Antarctic--
‘tip of the iceberg’• Greater warming at
the poles, intensified consequences
• Polar shelf melting• Collapse of key
climate systems• Feedback amplified Photo: Polar Bear International
Indigenous rights & climate change• Case from the Northern
Inuit peoples (155,000)• Submitted a petition to the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights –7 Dec 2005
• Rejected ‘without prejudice,’ 16 Nov 2006
• In Feb 2007, invited to provide testimony to IACHR on Climate Change & Human Rights
Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Chair Inuit Circumpolar Council (2002-2006) & Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, 2007
Sheila Watt-Cloutier’s testimony
• “…what I know best is from my own region, the Arctic….However, you can consider similar impacts on most indigenous peoples who remain integrated with their ecosystems. Inuit and other indigenous peoples continue to be an integral part, and not separate from, the ecosystems in which we live. Climate change brings into question the basic survival of indigenous people and indigenous cultures….”– March 2007
Not since 1931….
• In 2006, NZers witnessed an enormous iceberg floating alongside the South Island
• A fleeting tourist attraction
• Portend of things to come?
Sink or swim?
Tuvalu – HR & Climate Change
• 1 Oct 2007:
– Deputy PM of Tuvalu, Hon. Tavau Teiim, indicated need to consider serious impacts of Climate Change on Small Island States, like Tuvalu
Tuvalu…
• A string of 9 picturesque atolls and coral islands
• Resides 4 metres above sea level
• 10,500 residents remain; 4000 in New Zealand
• NZ agrees to host 75 new migrants pa
• One island has already ‘sunk’ due to storms in 1990s
• Now suffer from King Tides
Fanafuti, Wharf – Low & High Tides
Tuvalu – aerial width…
Kiribati in waiting
• June 2008, President Anote Tong of Kiribati visited NZ
• Worst case scenario, Kiribati will be submerged by end of century
• Hosts 92,000 inhabitants
• “No, it’s not an issue of economic growth. It’s an issue of survival.”
Critical rights to secure:• Existence of procedural
rights, e.g., access to information
• Right to participation & access to remedies (Aarhus Convention)
• Recognition of environmental refugees
• Environmental protection in bilateral agreements, including FTAs
Peace in our time…
• Evolve & strengthen humanitarian values
• Improve domestic & regional disaster preparedness and response systems
• Provide for health & care in the community--including cultural care of displaced persons, taking account of their human rights
AI activism, 2006
©Amnesty International
At home…
• Lobby for increased and enhanced environmental policy and legislation
• Support environmental projects that yield improved subsistence/living standards, e.g., clean water
• Seek answers from officials
• Make connections!
There is much to do…
• Learn more at www.amnesty.org.nz
• Write letters• Imagine another
world…• Start an Amnesty
Group in your community, school or church because…
It is better to light a candle
than to curse the darkness…