Transcript Establishing_a_New_L.. - Erasmus Mundus Students and Alumni

Outline of Presentation
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Climate Change and Human Rights
International Legal Framework
Migration and Displacement Issues
Prospects and Challenges
Global Solidarity: Erasmus Mundus Higher
Education and Climate Change
•Traditional Approach: Science and Economics
•Need to Humanize: Giving Climate Change a
Human Face
•Gap in Discourse
•Climate Change is about People:
Forms a Continuum which finds humanity at
both ends of spectrum
CLIMATE CHANGE
Human
Activities
Climate
Change
Human
Rights
“Human rights cannot be secured in a degraded or polluted
environment. The fundamental right to life is threatened by soil
degradation and deforestation and by exposures to toxic
chemicals, hazardous wastes and contaminated drinking water.
Environmental conditions clearly help to determine the extent to
which people enjoy their basic rights to life, health, adequate food
and housing, and traditional livelihood and culture... and that
those who pollute or destroy the natural environment are not just
committing a crime against nature, but are violating human rights
as well.”
- Klaus Töpfer
Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme
Case in Point: Droughts and Floods
Drought and Flood
Right
Social Problem
Crop/Food shortage
Right to Food
Reduced Income
Right to Adequate
Standard of Living
Right to Health
Malnutrition;
Imbalanced Diet
Poverty
Water-borne diseases;
diarrhea /dehydration
Move for Survival/ No luxury
of Moving
Nomadic lifestyle (Hinders
ownership rights)
Water as a precious
commodity
Scarce Resources
Diseases
Right to shelter/
Displacement
Freedom of Movement/
Education
Right to Own Property Economic Insecurity/
Displacement
Right to Food/ Security
Conflicts
Right against Slavery
Slavery/Injustice
II. Climate Change and the
International Legal Order
 Realignment of Social Institutions : Managing Climate
Change through Institutional Arrangements
 Climate Change
 Associated with Environmental Protection
 Permeated Loose Areas of International Law
 Included in Discourse of Environmental and Human
Rights Law : concept of sustainability, precautionary
principle, principle of causal responsibility, and the
need to protect the environment for future generations
 Interdisciplinary coupling: political and international legal
agreements
International Legal Framework
•1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment
(Stockholm Conference)
•Establishment of UN Environmental Program (UNEP)
ASEAN (Recent
Developments)
EUROPE /UN Economic Mission for Europe
Cebu Declaration on East
Asian Energy Security
Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air
Pollution
European Charter on Environment &Health
APEC Leaders' Declaration
on Climate Change, Energy
Security and Clean
Development
2007 Singapore Declaration
on Climate Change, Energy
and the Environment
Convention on the Transboundary Effects of
Industrial Accidents
Convention on Environmental Impact
Assessment in a Transboundary Context
Convention on Access to Information, Public
Participation in Decision-making and Access to
Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus
Convention)
Legal Framework in Europe
European Parliament and Council’s Climate Action and
Renewable Energy Package (2008)
 Reduce overall emissions to at least 20% below 1990
levels by 2020
 Scale up reduction to as much as 30% under new
agreements
European Court of Human Rights
 Lopez-Ostra v. Spain – Right to Privacy
 Oneryildiz v Turkey – Right to Life
Positive Obligation of States
 Significant in CC & HR - where it is often difficult to
establish the causal connection between the activities (or
omissions) of the state or of private actors who have
emitted greenhouse gas and the human rights impact
III. Migration & Displacement
 CC and HR: Image of Flight for Survival
 implies fleeing for survival as a result of threatened or
actual displacement due to
-conflicts
-contamination of water supplies (as a result of
flooding),
- risks to food security (due to desertification&
aridification)
-spread of deadly pathogens (due to increasing
temperatures and fluctuating precipitation levels), etc
 Linkage between CC and human mobility is complex:
No. of people obliged to move as a result of climate
change by the year 2050: from 25 million to one billion.
Legal Gaps
(Working Paper by the Informal Group on Migration/ Displacement and
Climate Change of the IASC)
Cause/Nature of
Movement
Existing Legal
Framework
Legal Gap
Extreme Hazards
Those moving within
existing borders are
currently protected by:
• International human
rights law if they move
voluntarily
• International human
rights law and the
Guiding Principles on
internal displacement
if they are forcibly
displaced
Those moving Across
Borders:
•No guarantee of
Entry/Admission
•No automatic
Protection By Refugee
Law
Environmental
degradation and/or
slow onset extreme
hazard events
•Same as above
•Lack of criteria to
distinguish between
voluntary and forced
movements in hazard
related
disaster settings
Legal Gaps
(Working Paper by the Informal Group on Migration/ Displacement and Climate
Change of the IASC)
Movement
Existing Legal Framework
Legal Gap
Significant
permanent
losses in
state
territory as
a result of
sea level
rise etc.
• IHR Law
• International human rights
law and the Guiding
Principles on
internal displacement if they
are forcibly displaced
•Loss of Territory – Loss of
Statehood – Statelessness
•Need to forge specific
arrangements , even while
UNHCR has mandate to
prevent/protect
statelessness/stateless
persons
Armed
conflict/
violence
over
shrinking
resources
• International humanitarian
law (IHL)
• IHR &Guiding Principles
• International refugee law
• Subsidiary and temporary
protection regimes
Internally Displaced Persons
Protection: Guiding Principles
on Internal Displacement
“persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee
or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as
a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of
generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or humanmade disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally
recognized State border.”
•Environmental refugee” / “Climate refugee” - NO legal basis in
international refugee law:
- usage could potentially undermine the international legal regime for
the protection of refugees, misdescribe what are projected to be
essentially internal movements, create confusion regarding the link
between climate change, environmental degradation and migration
Internally Displaced Persons
Gaps: Law and Policy
•Binding nature of Guiding Principles/ Translation to
Domestic Law
• Though IDPs may be likened to refugees - they lack the
institutional legal protection given to refugees
Government Protection: IDPs generally have to rely on own
governments for protection; yet, in certain cases of
environmental disasters, even governments might not be
able to provide the necessary protection - or may
themselves even hamper international assistance
IV. Prospects and Challenges
Prospects : Establishment of
New Legal Framework
Challenges: Changing
Mindsets/Setting Priorities
Upcoming UN Summit on Climate
Change in September
Rotate Anthropocentric View of
the World
Copenhagen Meeting - Aims to reach
a global climate change deal
(balanced, comprehensive and
ratifiable by all nations)
Additional Protocols to European
Convention on HR
Multilateral/Regional/ Bilateral
Agreements
“Global leadership of the highest
order” by US, China, India and the
European Union
Bridge the Gaps - particularly
within the international legal
framework
Reframe Outmoded Institutions
- Institutional rearrangements
primarily within the areas of law
and politics
Call for Interdisciplinary and
Multisectoral Approach to
Solutions
V. Erasmus Mundus Higher
Education & Climate Change
 Inclusion of Climate Change Issues in
Curricula to Ensure Continued Discussions/
Solutions
 Interdisciplinary Approach
 Cooperative Ventures/ Meaningful Collaboration :
Scientific , Technical, and Policy
Researches/Activities
 Sustainability – Strategic and Long Term
 Bottom Up/ Top Bottom Approach
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