Essay by Eric Worrall
The United Nations Human Rights Commission has ruled in favor of eight Torres Strait Islanders, who say Australia’s climate inaction violates their human rights.
Australia violated the right of Torres Strait Islanders to enjoy culture and family life, UN Commission finds
September 23, 2022
GENEVA (September 23, 2022) – In a groundbreaking decision, United Nations Human Rights Commission recognizes that Australia’s failure to adequately protect indigenous Torres Strait Islanders from the negative impacts of climate change violates their right to enjoy their culture and to be free from arbitrary interference in their private lives individuals, their families and their homes.
The committee today issued Decision after reviewing the joint complaint of eight Australian citizens and their six children. They are all indigenous inhabitants of Boigu, Poruma, Warraber and Masig, four small, low-lying islands in the Torres Strait region of Australia. Islanders say their rights have been violated due to Australia’s failure to adapt to climate change by upgrading breakwaters on the islands and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“This decision marks an important development because the Commission has created an avenue for individuals to assert claims where national systems have failed to take appropriate measures to protect those who are vulnerable. most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change on the enjoyment of their human rights,” said Committee Member Hélène Tigroudja.
In their complaint to the Commission, the Islanders claim that the change in weather patterns has direct harmful consequences on their livelihoods, culture and traditional way of life. Islanders say severe flooding caused by high tides in recent years has destroyed family graves and left human remains scattered across their island. They consider maintaining ancestral graveyards and visiting and communicating with deceased loved ones central to their culture. In addition, the most important rituals such as the coming of age ceremony and the initiation ceremony are only culturally meaningful if performed in the homeland of the community.
Islanders also claim that climate change with heavy rainfall and storms has degraded land and trees, thereby reducing food availability from fishing and traditional farming. On Masig Island, for example, rising sea levels have caused saltwater to seep into the soil and sick coconut trees, which then killed the fruit and coconut water, which are part of the island’s traditional diet. .
The Committee took into account the close, spiritual connection of the Islanders to their traditional lands, and the dependence of their cultural integrity on the health of the ecosystems around them. . Therefore, it finds that Australia’s failure to take timely and adequate measures to protect indigenous peoples from the negative impacts of climate change has resulted in a violation of their rights. enjoy their own culture and be free from arbitrary interference in their private, family and home lives.
“Countries that fail to protect individuals under their jurisdiction from the negative effects of climate change may violate their human rights under international law,” Tigroudja added.
In the same decision, the Committee pointed out that despite a series of Australian actions, such as the construction of new breakwaters on the four islands expected to be completed by 2023, timely and appropriate additional measures were required to prevent the risk to the lives of island residents, as Without strong national and international efforts, the impacts of climate change could cause individuals to violate their right to life under the Convention.
In order to take remedial action, the Commission asks Australia to compensate Indigenous islanders for damage, engage in meaningful consultations with their communities to assess their needs and implement measures. measures to further ensure the safe existence of communities on their respective islands.
END
Source: UN press release
In my opinion, this act completely discredits the United Nations Commission on Human Rights – one of the few UN agencies that I hope can still contribute at times to the welfare of the United Nations. human benefit.
The islands named in this act are impermanent coral and mud bays. Boigu The island is made of sand and mud, Poruma, Warraber and Masig made of coral.
The Torres Straitwhere the island’s inhabitants live, suffer from some of the harshest weather on the planet.
In 1899123 years ago, the islands were destroyed by Cyclone Mahina. This tornado is believed to have caused a 13m / 42ft . high tide stormat least 14ft higher than Hurricane Katrina, with a central pressure thought to be as low as 880HPa, and at the time of writing in 2019, still claimed to hold the record for the largest ever recorded high tide from a hurricane, tornado or hurricane.
There’s nothing permanent about the structure of loose sand islands or coral islands, which change shape after each storm. The area where the archipelago is located is affected by violent storms and tornadoes every year. Such storms have been recorded since the late 1800s (Cyclone Mahina), and have likely occurred since. Torres Strait formed 12,000 years agowhen sea level rise during the early Holocene submerged the land bridge between New Guinea and Australia.
In my opinion, Australia’s annual contribution of 1% to the global increase in CO2 has partly caused changes to the geography of the islands that the UNHRC has ruled as Australia’s fault, which in my opinion is completely illegitimate. physical.
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