The Conversation, May 2019:
Climate change threatens
Australia in many different ways, and can devastate rural and urban communities
alike. For Torres Strait Islanders, it’s a crisis that’s washing away their
homes, infrastructure and even
cemeteries.
The failure to take
action on this crisis has
led a group of Torres Strait Islanders to
lodge a climate change case with the United Nations Human Rights
Committee against the Australian federal government.
It’s the
first time the Australian government has been taken to the UN for
their failure to take action on climate change. And its the first time people
living on a low lying island have taken action against any government.
This case – and other
parallel cases – demonstrate that climate change is “fundamentally a human rights issue”,
with First Nations most vulnerable to the brunt of a changing climate.
The group of Torres
Strait Islanders lodging this appeal argue that the Australian government has
failed to take adequate action on climate change. They allege that the re-elected
Coalition government has not only steered Australia off track in meeting globally
agreed emissionsreductions, but has set us on course for climate
catastrophe.
In doing so, Torres
Strait Islanders argue that the government has failed to uphold human
rights obligations and violated their rights to culture, family and
life.
This case is a show of
defiance in the face of Australia’s years of political inertia and turmoil over
climate change.
It is the first time
people living on a low-lying island – acutely vulnerable in the face of rising
sea levels – have brought action against a government. But it may also be a
sign of things to come, as more small island nations face impending climate
change threats…..
The
Guardian, 13 May 2019:
The complaint will
assert that the Morrison government has failed to take adequate action to
reduce emissions or pursue proper adaptation measures on the islands and, as a
consequence, has failed fundamental human rights obligations to Torres Strait
Islander people.
One of the complainants,
sixth-generation Warraber man, Kabay Tamu, said in a statement: “When erosion
happens, and the lands get taken away by the seas, it’s like a piece of us that
gets taken with it – a piece of our heart, a piece of our body. That’s why it
has an effect on us. Not only the islands but us, as people.
“We have a sacred site
here, which we are connected to spiritually. And disconnecting people from the
land, and from the spirits of the land, is devastating.
“It’s devastating to even imagine that my
grandchildren or my great-grandchildren being forced to leave because of the
effects that are out of our hands.
“We’re currently seeing
the effects of climate change on our islands daily, with rising seas, tidal
surges, coastal erosion and inundation of our communities.”
The non-profit
coordinating the complaint by the Torres Strait Islanders says this will be the
first climate change litigation brought against the Australian government based
on a human rights complaint, and also the first legal action worldwide brought
by inhabitants of low-lying islands against a nation state.
Lawyers with environmental law
non-profit ClientEarth, are representing the islanders, with support from
British-based barristers.
The UN Human Rights
Committee is a body of 18 legal experts that sits in Geneva. The committee
monitors compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights.
The complainants are
alleging that Australia has violated article 27, the right to culture; article
17, the right to be free from arbitrary interference with privacy, family and
home; and article 6, the right to life.
According to briefing
material supplied by ClientEarth, the complaint alleges these rights have been
violated both by Australia’s insufficient
greenhouse gas mitigation targets and plans, and by its failure to
fund adequate
coastal defence and resilience measures on the islands, such as
seawalls.
Lawyers for the
islanders allege that the catastrophic nature of the predicted future impacts
of climate change on the Torres Strait
Islands, including the total submergence of ancestral homelands, is a
sufficiently severe impact as to constitute a violation of the rights to
culture, family and life.
The islanders want the
government to commit at least $20m for emergency measures such as seawalls, as
requested by local authorities, and sustained investment in long-term adaptation
measures to ensure the islands can continue to be inhabited.
They want a commitment
to reduce emissions by at least 65% below 2005 levels by 2030 and going net
zero before 2050 and a phase out of thermal coal, both for domestic electricity
generation and export markets....
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