GENEVA: Australia violated the rights of indigenous people by failing to adequately protect them against the effects of climate change, a United Nations watchdog has ruled, ordering Canberra to pay compensation.
In a ground-breaking decision, the UN Human Rights Committee ruled in favour of indigenous Torres Islanders who had filed a complaint against Australia over its failure to adapt to climate change.
The Islanders had pointed to measures such as failure to upgrade seawalls on their islands or to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
“Australia’s failure to adequately protect indigenous Torres Islanders against adverse impacts of climate change violated their rights to enjoy their culture and be free from arbitrary interferences with their private life, family and home,” the committee said in its decision issued on Friday.
Eight Australian nationals and six of their children — all indigenous inhabitants of Boigu, Poruma, Warraber and Masig, four small, low-lying islands in Australia’s Torres Strait region — filed the complaint in 2019.
They claimed that changes in weather patterns had direct harmful consequences on their livelihood, culture and traditional way of life. Severe flooding had destroyed family graves and left human remains scattered across their islands, they said.
They also argued that the changing climate, with heavy rainfall and storms, had degraded the land and trees, reducing the amount of food available from traditional fishing and farming.
“Advancing seas are already threatening homes, as well as damaging burial grounds and sacred cultural sites,” the claimants said when they filed their complaint.
“Many Islanders are worried that their islands could quite literally disappear in their lifetimes without urgent action.”
Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2022
