A United Nations committee has found that Australia violated the human rights of a group of Torres Strait Islanders by failing to adequately protect them from the impacts of climate change.
The groundbreaking finding by the United Nations Human Rights Committee was made in response to a complaint filed in 2019 by eight Torres Strait Islander adults and their children.
Rising sea levels have already damaged food sources and ancestral burial sites, scattering human remains, the Islanders argued, saying their homes are at risk of being submerged.
The committee said Australia had violated two of the three human rights set out in a UN treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), pertaining to culture and family life, but not article 6 on the right to life.
Some 173 of the 193 UN member states have ratified the covenant, including Australia. There is no enforcement mechanism but there are follow-up steps, and states generally comply with the committee's findings.
The UN Human Rights Committee called for the Australian government to provide the islanders with an effective remedy.
"This decision marks a significant development, as the committee has created a pathway for individuals to assert claims where national systems have failed to take appropriate measures to protect those most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change on the enjoyment of their human rights," committee member Hélène Tigroudja said.
The committee found Australia’s failure to adequately protect Torres Strait Islanders from the 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 Australian government had called for the case to be dismissed, saying there was insufficient evidence that the consequences of climate change would affect the islanders' enjoyment of their rights.
More to come.
ABC/Reuters
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2022-09-23 08:59:51Z
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