367 
The Road to Bali: Climate Change 
Issued: 28 November 2007

Human Rights and Climate Change
By Marie Soveroski , Managing Director, EarthRights International

Representatives from the 26 nations of the Alliance of Small Island States met in the Maldives at the beginning of this month to prepare a resolution that they will submit to the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali in December. Maldives was an appropriate place to meet, as the 1,200 islands which make up that country’s territory are on average a mere two metres above sea level. Many of these islands would be lost under the sea, in the not too distant future, if climate change continues to melt polar and glacial ice at the current rate. The coral reefs which protect these, and many others, islands from the ravages of ocean storms are being killed off by warming ocean waters, which have also contributed to the intensity of storms forming over these warmer waters. Fish stocks are being negatively impacted for the same reasons, while the rise in sea levels is causing salt water to permeate in to fresh water supplies.  

On the other side of the planet, indigenous peoples of the North are experiencing similar disruptions to their lives and livelihoods through the melting of the frozen northern landscapes and seas. The loss of sea ice is threatening the survival of the animals these peoples depend on for their food, clothing and shelter, and the thinning of coastal ice has made hunting there a far more treacherous endeavor than it already was, imperiling the lives and cultures of these people themselves.  

It is not just people directly reliant upon and living by, the sea, who are impacted. Retreating glaciers are affecting the reliability of down stream water supplies, while warming climates are causing an increase in mosquito-borne, and other, diseases. An April 2007 report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change anticipates that by the year 2020 an additional 75 to 250 million people will experience water shortages brought on by climate change, which is already causing widespread desertification and deforestation.  

The UN Refugee Agency estimated, in 2002, that approximately 24 million people were environmental refugees, unable to survive in the places they had originally called home. A 2005 Duke University report calculated that this number will increase to 50 million by 2010, while Christian Aid predicts the number could reach one billion by 2050. While it is impossible to determine the exact impact of climate change, there is no scientific doubt that it is a contributing factor.  

As indicated above, climate change is a human rights issue. Virtually all major human rights instruments, from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights to specialized and regional conventions, recognize the fundamental right to life, and associated economic, social and cultural rights. The 1972 Stockholm Declaration stated that people have a fundamental right to “adequate conditions of life in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being.” 

These human rights issues are particularly relevant for indigenous peoples. Both the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have found that failure to protect indigenous peoples’ claims to ancestral lands, and disruption of their traditional life, violate protected human rights. On October 18, 2007, the Supreme Court of Belize issued the first court judgment applying the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 13, 2007, and which recognizes the rights to own, occupy, and use lands, territories and waters. The Court held that both national and international law protect the rights of indigenous people to their traditional lands and resources.  

In August 2006, the UN Subcommittee on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights called upon the Human Rights Council to consider the legal implications of the disappearance of states and territories for environmental reasons. The meeting in Bali should move this forward. The 1972 Stockholm Declaration stated that mankind has “a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations.” The UN Human Rights Commission, in 1982, stated that protection of human rights requires the active involvement of states. What indigenous people, and all the rest of us, can expect and demand of the UNCCC meeting in Bali is that the nations of the world, especially those making the greatest contributions to climate change, live up to their solemn responsibility. As climate change is likely to have the most significant and long-term impacts on indigenous peoples, and others whose lives and cultures are directly tied to the environment, their concerns should be at the forefront of those addressed in Bali .

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