New Publication: Climate Wrongs and Human Rights

sumber :
mailis KOMNAS_HAM@yahoogroups.com
Senin, 15 September 2008

Oxfam America: Climate change linked to human rights violations

9 September 2008

For more information, contact:
Laura Rusu, Senior Press Officer
202-496-1169 (office)
202-459-3739 (mobile)
lrusu@oxfamamerica.org

The climate crisis is likely to cause widespread violation of rights
enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, according to a
new report released today by international humanitarian organization
Oxfam. Visit:
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/briefing_papers/climate-wrongs-and-human-rights

Oxfam's report, "Climate Wrongs and Human Rights", sets out a new
vision for a rights-based approach to climate change policymaking and
highlights where current climate change negotiations are far from
delivering what's needed. Oxfam is submitting the report to the Office
of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which is now reviewing
the relationship between international human rights and climate change.

"People have an inherent right to a safe, secure, and healthy life,
but this right is being threatened by the global climate crisis," said
Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. "Carbon emissions
from industrialized countries have human and environmental
consequences. As a result, climate change is violating the basic human
rights of millions of the world's poorest people to life, security,
food, health and shelter."

The organization called on climate change policies at national and
international levels to be based on existing human rights principles.

"National and international leaders must recognize and address the
harm to people occurring today and that will continue as a result of
climate change," said Offenheiser. "The principles of human rights
provide a strong foundation for policy making, as all states must
respect, protect and fulfill human rights, and these principles must
be put at the heart of a global deal to tackle global climate change."

But current negotiations are currently off track to deliver the needed
policies, according to Oxfam. The report asserts that adaptation
financing for poor countries is being woefully under-resourced and
that rich countries are failing to deliver sufficient finance and
technology to help poor countries shift to low-carbon pathways and
realize their right to development. Developed countries, led by the
G8, are proposing merely to halve global emissions by 2050, when a cut
of at least 80% in emissions by 2050 is necessary to prevent a
catastrophic 2°C temperature increase that is likely to cause
widespread violations of rights.

"If international negotiations do not deliver needed remedies for
ongoing human rights violations caused by climate change, poor
countries may be forced to explore other options, such as the
possibility of litigation," said Offenheiser. "Rich country polluters
in developed countries have been aware of their liability for many
years now. If they fail to cut emissions and help people now, they
could face legal action later."

The authors of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights could never
have imagined having to deal with such a complex global challenge as
climate change, so human right laws and institutions must evolve fast
to keep up, according to Oxfam. While lawyers should push to have
international courts recognize future injury and joint liability for
climate-change damage, existing human rights principles are clearly
sufficient to guide rich countries' policies to cut their emissions
and finance adaptation.

"Urgently cutting emissions is the only way to respect and protect
human rights from being violated by the impacts of climate change, and
funding adaptation for the poorest people is the only remedy for those
whose human rights have already been violated," said Offenheiser.