I recently completed a report that identifies the judicial or quasi-judicial bodies existing globally where a potential climate change and displacement case could be launched. This report provides a guide for understanding the complaint process, how to lodge a complaint, and what the complaint should contain - essentially a one-stop shop for global human rights complaint processes. I hope the report assists rights holders, researchers and practitioners!
If you would like to read the report, launch a human rights claim or share the report to someone that is affected by climate change please visit:
https://www.displacementsolutions.org/_files/ugd/9ec010_cfceb52a33ca491098f3bf9156c397b6.pdf
What is climate displacement
For those of you who may not know, displacement caused by climate change is arguably the 'end result' from a human rights perspective—forcing people to move because the land they live on becomes uninhabitable. The loss of land leads to the complete loss of life, work, culture, home, and connections, and it raises the sad possibility that humanity may not even remember these places in the future.
To provide context for the report and climate displacement specifically, I will provide two stories that I heard while moderating a meeting of climate change activists in the Pacific region. During the moderation, I heard many stories and issues consequent to climate displacement. However, two stories stood specifically stood out to me, they related to the complete submergence of entire island states due to sea level rise. These islands are also two sovereign independent countries, where currently, the majority of their land is already submerged. I hope the next stories will detail the absurdity of what is currently happening and provide a new perspective on the issues that climate change presents.
Tuvalu's Metaverse
Whatever your view of Facebook's Metaverse is, it is still serving a critical function for the people of Tuvalu. Specifically, Tuvalu is creating a cultural and physical copy of itself onto the Facebook Metaverse. During COP 27, in 2022, Tuvalu's Foreign Minister Simon Kofe stated:
We have no choice but to become the world's first digital nation. Our land, our ocean, our culture are the most precious assets of our people. To keep them safe from harm no matter what happens in the physical world, we will move them to the cloud.
Most alarmingly, the message was delivered through a video that was filmed and produced within Metaverse.
No More Adaptation and Mitigation - Kiribati
Adaptation and mitigation are the words utilised to centre the discussion on how to respond to climate change. In short, they are the foundational strategies to address climate change and are often used when addressing the obligations upon States to either:
Adaptation: manage and reduce the vulnerability of societies to the impacts of climate change; and
Mitigation: taking action to limit the magnitude of long-term climate change, primarily, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
These terms are derived from international law, carry specific meanings, and impose distinct obligations. However, many have been disenfranchised with human rights law, climate change law and even if law in general can ever inherently tackle the climate question. Beyond such disenfranchisement and theoretical discussions regarding the ambit, scope and applicability of adaptation and mitigation, some States now have no more option but to move past these words.
In this meeting, there was one participant from Kiribati, who did not mention these two words even once and has left this entire rubric completely. She, along with the general sentiment of people from Kiribati, have realised that their island will not exist in the future and therefore adaptation and mitigation are no longer relevant. Their primary concern now is: how will they ensure that future Kiribati generations, who are no longer born on Kiribati, will remember their land, culture and language.
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