Singapore Democrats

Climate justice and human rights: Two sides of the same coin

By: Vicente García-Delgado, CIVICUS´ UN Representative (NY)

In a remarkably short period of time Climate Justice has become a worldwide citizen movement. The cry for Climate Justice has now been taken up by practically all sectors of civil society, and the search is on for new forms of civil society collaboration with a truly interdisciplinary, holistic approach. Notably in this regard, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Global Humanitarian Forum recently launched the Global Alliance for Climate Justice. The Alliance's two-day meeting last June was "the first time that the issue of the human impact of climate changes, as opposed to its environmental and emissions aspects, was the centre of an international conference of such high and wide-ranging levels." The urgent call by global civil society for Climate Justice may thrust forth from many different and diverse civil society perspectives, angles and geographical and cultural backgrounds; but in the end, they all seem to gravitate around one essential common realisation: climate change is fast becoming one of the greatest challenges to Human Rights.

http://www.civicus.org/content/monthcolintro37.htm