Human rights and climate change

I attended a debate at the Frontline club on Thursday where there was a discussion on whether human rights should be at the heart of climate change policy.

It raised an interesting perspective that I had not considered before because human rights have an existing international legal framework. So if climate change impacts a person’s (or often those of a community or indigenous group) there is a path for redress. It may be difficult to follow it, because the people affected are usually poor, spend all their time just struggling to survive and would not know about these legal rights, let alone how to pursue them.

But those affected can be empowered (with the help from groups such as LEAD) and they can be helped by powerful advocates such as Amnesty International.

Human rights is another lens through which to view climate change and one that opens up more possibilities for holding to account those who contribute to it – who, of course, can be not only governments and corporations but ourselves as consumers.

Here is a video of the discussion at the Frontline club:
http://www.viddler.com/player/cb188acd/

Roger Stone, AIB