Rising sea temperatures are blighting the health of the marine environments around the islands, by bleaching the coral and acidifying the ocean. Tides are rising every year, flooding homes, lands and important cultural sites.
For thousands of years they have been home to the claimants’ ancestors and families, but the effects of climate change are hitting the islands hard. The Torres Strait Islands lie off the northern tip of Queensland, between Australia and Papua New Guinea. In 2019, a group of eight Torres Strait Islander people made a ground-breaking complaint, alleging that Australia’s failure to act on climate change is violating their fundamental human rights. What complaint did the Torres Strait claimants make against the Australian Government? With so much to fight for, the group is vowing to continue their campaign for the future of their island home. C laimants have entered dialogue with MPs in Canberra and despite constructive discussions claimants say further concrete commitments are needed. Over a year since the UN’s ruling, in September 2023, the Australian government is still refusing to pay the claimants any compensation, despite the UN reccommending it does so. Anything less will be both illegal and a huge moral failing.
The Australian Government must act on this decision and take decisive steps to protect the islands of Zenadh Kes / Torres Strait. It is a victory for all peoples who are the most vulnerable to runaway climate change and opens the door to further legal action and compensation claims in international and domestic law. This win gives us hope that we can protect our island homes, culture and traditions for our kids and future generations to come.ĬlientEarth lawyer, Sophie Marjanac, who has been supporting the claimants in their complaint, said: This is an historic victory for climate justice. Climate change affects our way of life everyday. I know that our ancestors are rejoicing knowing that Torres Strait Islander voices are being heard throughout the world through this landmark case. In my culture, we take this as a sign from my ancestors that we would be hearing good news very soon about this case.
#AUSTRALIA MARTIAL LAW AUGUST 2021 FULL#
This morning when I woke up on Masig, I saw that the sky was full of frigate birds. Yessie Mosby, a Kulkalgal man, Traditional Owner on the island of Masig and a claimant in the case, said: It’s also the first time that an international tribunal has found a country has violated human rights law through inadequate climate policy, the first time a nation state has been found responsible for their greenhouse gas emissions under international human rights law, and the first time that Indigenous peoples’ right to culture has been found to be at risk from climate impacts. This was the very first legal action brought by climate-vulnerable inhabitants of low-lying islands against a nation state. This climate inaction is resulting in sea level rise and extreme erosion, effectively washing away the ancestral homeland of those inhabiting islands in Zenadh Kes / Torres Strait, as well as destroying the natural sea and land environments on which they depend. The Committee also asked Australia to compensate the claimants for the harm suffered, and to do whatever needed to secure the communities’ safe existence. The Committee overall agreed with the complaint, finding that climate change is currently impacting the claimant’s daily lives to the extent that their rights are being violated, and that Australia is failing to take sufficient steps to secure the communities’ safe existence on their islands. A majority of the Committee agreed with the claimants, who originally filed the complaint against the Australian Government in 2019, stating that Australia’s climate inaction was a violation of their right to family life and right to culture. This landmark decision was delivered by the UN’s Human Rights Committee on 23 September 2022. What did the human rights committee decide?
0 kommentar(er)
