Climate change threatens human rights, opens up governments, corporations to litigation: UN senior official
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Extreme weather events are undermining the very basics of human existence, said Dr Ian Fry, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on human rights and climate change.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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CANBERRA - Climate change is not only wrecking lives and livelihoods, but it is also a direct threat to the basic human rights of millions of people, opening up a new front to bring the world’s top polluting governments and corporations to heel, a senior United Nations official said.
Dr Ian Fry, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on human rights and climate change, said increasingly extreme weather events are undermining the very basics of human existence, and while people in poorer nations are most affected, those in rich nations are not spared suffering either.
This is spurring a growing number of legal cases and complaints against polluting governments businesses whose emissions
“Climate change is already affecting the lives of so many people. It’s affecting the right to food, the right to health, the right to fresh water, to shelter and housing. All these basic human rights are being violated,” he told The Straits Times in Canberra, Australia, where he is based.
Dr Fry was appointed in 2022
His role is to put a human face on climate change, he said.
It involves raising awareness of climate-linked rights violations by governments and corporations, visiting affected groups of people and convening meetings, as well as writing annual reports to the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
A key focus is on how emissions from big polluters can affect people far away, since greenhouse gas emissions stop at no borders once they have escaped into the atmosphere.
These emissions are heating up the planet and driving more extreme weather, melting ice caps and causing sea levels to rise.
The majority of those badly affected are the least responsible for climate change.
They include people with disabilities who are unable to escape an extreme weather event, such as the flooding in the town of Lismore in New South Wales, Australia, in 2022.
“Most people who died had disabilities and couldn’t escape the floods,” Dr Fry said.
The elderly, being more vulnerable to extreme heat and cold and unable to escape as easily as younger people, are also badly victimised by climate change.
Women, too, are vulnerable.
“They’re subjected to sexual harassment and trafficking,” said Dr Fry.
In Bangladesh, sea-level rise, flooding and cyclones are displacing thousands of people every year and destroying farmlands.
Dr Fry said that during a visit to Bangladesh in 2022, he saw the aftermath of a flood and met a group of women whose farmland was damaged and livestock washed away.
“These people are in an incredible situation – they still have to pay rent for the land, which is now not producing anything. And they won’t get their crops back for another two years or so.
“They’re just paying out money, and that affects whether they can afford to send their children to school or buy books. So there are all sorts of connected human rights implications,” he said.
During his term as special rapporteur, Dr Fry said he plans to focus on a number of issues, including corporate accountability – getting corporations to disclose fossil fuel investments, such as banks or pension funds investing in fossil fuel companies and projects.
Greater transparency is needed by investors, regulators and climate-affected nations, he said.
Another top focus for Dr Fry is climate change displacement – people forced from their homes because of climate-linked impacts or events.
In 2021, nearly 60 million people were internally displaced, many of whom were displaced by climate-related disasters. This is a bigger number than people displaced by armed conflict.
Dr Ian Fry was appointed in 2022 for an initial three-year term, and his role is to put a human face to climate change.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF IAN FRY
“The big issue is that people displaced across international borders as a consequence of climate change are not defined as refugees under the UN Refugee Convention, and therefore fall through the cracks as far as protection is concerned,” he said.
Dr Fry said that in Singapore’s case, climate migration might become an issue in the future as more nations in the region are adversely affected by climate change. Rising heat could also affect the rights of people in the Republic who have to work outdoors.
Litigation is another main area of focus for Dr Fry. Indigenous groups, children and the elderly have all launched human rights cases against governments and companies. More such cases are expected.
“People are going to have to pay or be held liable for their emissions and the costs of those emissions. And until we ramp up that sort of litigation, and people start to realise there is a cost, then they’re just going to keep doing it,” Dr Fry said.
Big polluters were recently put on notice when UNGA adopted a resolution by the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu
An advisory opinion by the ICJ could prompt governments and companies to strengthen their climate policies.
Pacific island nations have been among the most vocal in calling for big polluters to take responsibility for the consequences of their emissions. These nations are among the most affected by global warming.
“Our people, our communities, have found themselves in a role as the warning system of this world on a major global issue. That is our position, and we cannot give up now,” said Mr Tuiloma Neroni Slade of Samoa, an elder statesman of the Pacific, during a recent panel discussion at the ANU.
“Climate change and climate change impacts start with people and end with people. It has to be about human rights,” added Mr Slade, 82, a former secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.
