By Brendan Sweeney
Climate change is already contributing to displacement and migration globally with the consequent knock-on effects on human rights and political stability. Many experts believe that the scope and scale of this problem will increase dramatically over future decades, and that the least developed countries and small island states will bear the brunt of these changes.
In order to explore the human rights implications of climate change ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009, the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) organized a workshop on the topic with a special focus on equity and justice issues arising from international and domestic regulation.
International experts from NGOs, universities, and organizations such as the World Bank and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), spoke on a wide range of topics based on four specific themes, i.e. an exploration of the human rights implications of climate change, an examination of the legal obligations of duty bearers, a discussion of the way international regulations satisfy the objectives of equity and justice, and finally, an investigation of the interaction of domestic and international regulations based on specific cases.
Presentations ranged from actual examples of the human rights implications on vulnerable communities such as the Inuit in Greenland by Aqqaluk Lynge, President of the Inuit Circumpolar Council in Greenland (ICC) to papers on the difficult area of international burden sharing and deciding who has to pay for emissions.
For example, one participant, Simon Caney, Professor in Political Theory at the University of Oxford, who has written extensively on the problem of responsibility and climate change identified three principles which he suggested could be used to create an equitable method of sharing the burden.
In his paper Professor Caney concluded that it was unjust to impose responsibilities on people where this compromises their ability to uphold their human rights; that agents should pay in accordance with their emissions, except where doing so is incompatible with the realization of human rights; and finally that agents should pay according to their ability to pay.
Other participants, including Yves Lador, Earthjustice’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Siobhán McInerney Lankford from the World Bank, and representatives from NGOs such as CARE Denmark and the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), ensured a lively debate about the actual consequences of climate change, as well as measures for dealing with it. Researchers, such as Frank Sejersen from Copenhagen University and DIHR representatives spoke about the problems associated with environmental degradation and climate change and their impact on vulnerable groups as well as on national policy and domestic law. Two experts, Yanfang Zhou from China, and Javier López Padilla from Honduras, spoke about the human rights situation in their respective countries vis-à-vis the environment.
Ulrik Halsteen, Focal Point for Climate Change at OHCHR, delivered a paper on the human rights implications of climate change, thought that the timing of the workshop was fortunate:
“I think it’s been extremely useful and helpful for me and underlined the important role of national institutions such as the Danish Institute for Human Rights in raising awareness about the issues, and also to engage with the national governments as they negotiate a new climate change agreement,” he said.
Professor Caney was also keen to underline the importance of the workshop: “I think it has been extremely helpful, partly just because it brings so many diverse perspectives from different disciplines but also from those who live with the day-to-day experience of what climate change means for them and their communities. So everything from the most abstract analysis of responsibilities to the legal framework to the felt experiences of climatic change; they’re all essential.”
The two-day workshop which was chaired by senior DIHR staff including the Institute’s Director, Jonas Christoffersen, and Deputy Director, Charlotte Flindt Pedersen, was organised jointly by DIHR Senior Researcher, Hans-Otto Sano and Annali Kristiansen, Project Manager and Strategic Coordinator at DIHR.
“As the international community prepares for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen which will take place in December, the need to highlight and address the relationship between human rights and climate change is paramount,” he stated.
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