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Climate change and Human Rights : tools exist at the Council of Europe

10/9/2015

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Merete BJERREGARD : the tools exist at th Council of Europe


Expert of the Division of Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Merete BJEREGAARD recalled the growing awareness of a link between environment and human rights in major international texts, particularly those of the Council of Europe in recent years.

The concept of the right to a healthy environment goes back to the Stockholm Conference in 1972, the first UN conference on the environment, she said, followed by a reference to climate in the European Declaration of Human Rights 2009.

However, she adds, any undertaking requires, to be implemented, a "monitoring". But the Council of Europe has a unique monitoring tool, that of the European Court of Human Rights. Despite the lack of explicit reference to the right to a healthy and sustainable environment, the Court uses the clauses relating to environmental causes

In addition, the European Court of Human Rights considers that the European Convention on Human Rights is a "living" tool to be adapted to the times we are in. The case law on the environment is, therefore, constantly changing.

Useful guiding principles for the implementation of environmental policies

It would be possible to highlight the guiding principles for all levels of governance, civil society and all citizens, from
  • the Social Charter implementation by the European Committee of Social Rights which deals with the climate in Article 11 ,
  • the recommendation of PACE 2003 and 2009 on the right to a healthy environment,
  • the Manual on Environment and Human Rights of 2003 revised in 2010 by the Steering Committee of Human Rights. Such a tool could provide guidance to States in the drafting of policies and environmental measures including climate. It provides relevant principles from case law and requests made under the Social Charter. It refers to good national practice

It is urgent to take action on climate Mrs BJERREGAARD ​​said: the Council of Europe has unique tools for this. They can be developed and brought to the attention of all stakeholders, the Manual is one of them!

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Migration: can we speak of climate refugees?How many will they be? What to expect from COP21?

10/9/2015

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INGOs and Parliamentarians Round-Table on Climate change and Human Rights at the Council of Europe - 29 September 2015

PictureDina IONESCO

"Migrants should be taken neither as heroes nor victims but for committed and responsible actors who can contribute to the fight against climate change!" (Dina Ionesco)

Dina IONESCO, director of the Migration Environment and Climate Charge Division, newly created at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) presented the commitments and expectations of the Organization to the Paris Summit during the Round Table on Human Rights and Climate Change.

IOM currently brings together 158 member-states around programs both political and field. The Organization is marked, according to Mrs IONESCO by a "culture of doing"

Who are the environmental migrants?
The equation "Migration, Environment and Climate Change" is complex because any migration is multicausal. It is therefore difficult to isolate the environmental factor from other causes of migration (economic, social, demographic or personal). It appears as well that  Mediterranean migrants suffered environmental and climate stress. Such important dimension cannot be ignored any longer

Furthermore, the multi causality accompanying environmental migration has legal and social repercussions because if everyone understands migration due to sudden disaster, it is much more difficult to identify those due to slow degradation of the environment as salinization land or ocean acidification

Can we speak of environmental migrants?

The data that legitimize political action are difficult to obtain.
Between 2008 and 2014, 196 million people were displaced by sudden disasters. In 2013, 22 million people, out of drought, have been identified, a number greater than that of people fleeing the conflict. It is also known, she said, that 93% of these trips were caused by floods in 2013, particularly in Asia.

According to the IDMC (International Displacement Monitoring Center) migration observatory with which IOM works, IPCC and UNCCD

In 2025,
    
2.4 billion people will be in repeated drought area
    
50 million people will be in areas subject to desertification
    
75 to 120 000 people will be subject to water stress
    
50 of the largest cities in the world located in coastal areas will experience rising seas and coastal erosion

However that migration will be mainly internal to the countries or regional


Climate migrants can not access the status of "refugee".... ...

Although we speak of migration in discussions on climate, (which is a change of era and paradigm), climate migration fall into two types of situations:

First, internal migration, national or regional, the most common one, which is the responsibility of States. In such case, the Kampala Principles apply, for prevention as well as evacuation or return.

Second, migration across borders which are not covered by the 1951 Geneva Convention, since it requires evidence of persecution.

This leads IOM and UNHCR to refuse to use the term "climate refugee" who reports to the metaphorical language (as the terms "climate shipwrecked" or "exiles of climate change"). These organizations do not want to "make people believe they can get refugee status on the basis of the Geneva Convention, says Ms IONESCO

... hence the vital importance  of the human rights frame
 
The structure of human rights provides a set of rights such as the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits returning a migrant in his country since the security is not assured.

IOM has been working for over twenty years on this topic. Its areas of work relate to the conceptualization, information, advocacy and research.

A glossary, wanted by the Member States of IOM, aims to find linguistic bridges between the theme of migration and that of environment

IOM addresses the entire migration cycle, from prevention to resettlement (eg. Preparing children at risk, planning of coastal areas under threat but also humanitarian assistance, assistance to nomadic populations, or work with diaspora fund return to develop the original land in state (eg Niger and Senegal)

Other axis, facilitating legal and circular migration (eg between Colombia and Spain). IOM also works with the United Nations Framework Convention to Combat Desertification,

The Organization follows migration issues in the climate debate since COP 14 and integrates the climate talks in programs on migration. Dina Ionesco recalls that migration are included in the statements of Cancun and Doha as part of adaptation but negatively policies


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A legislation for the climate in each country

10/9/2015

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PictureLord PRESCOTT
 John Prescott, former negotiator for the European Union of the Kyoto agreements, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment and Energy Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), "the road to Paris is not easy."

First , order of topics such as financing, implementation of the future treaty and the definition of common differentiated responsibilities remain to be addressed
  •     Indeed, climate financing is a difficult question, because of the expectation of developing countries
  •     The enforceability of the Treaty is condemned by the refusal of the US Congress
  •     The definition of differentiated common responsibilities is difficult to achieve, mainly because it is based on assessments in proportion to the population that distort the calculations on actual emissions of greenhouse gas in some countries.

Lord Prescott believes that only legislation to allow each country to implement the Treaty of Paris, and to take effective action on climate. No international body can do it, t he insists. That's why this application is one of the key proposals that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe wishes to share with the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly to be held in Paris in December, during the Summit.

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Towards an ambitious agreement at the Paris Summit

10/8/2015

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INGOs Side-event at the Council of Europe - 29 September 2015

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62 days to the Summit in Paris, on behalf of the Conference of INGOs, Anne-Marie Chavanon, Chair of the Social Cohesion and Global Challenges Democracy Committee invites governmental and nongovernmental actors to consider the crucial issue of the future treaty and the impact of climate change on human rights
An ambitious agreement in the final round of climate negotiations was  at the Palais de l'Europe in Strasbourg has been advocated by  Lord Prescott, Chairman of the Committee on Environment and Energy of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and former negotiator for Europe of the Kyoto Accords, Sir Alan Meale parliamentarian from UK, former president of the PACE Committee on Sustainable development, personally committed to defending the right to a healthy environment, Edith Wenger, representative of the European Environmental Bureau, who initiated the working group "Climate and Human Rights" within the Conference of INGOs, Yves Hauss climatologist, Merete Bjerregaard, expert from the Directorate of Human Rights at the Council of Europe, Dina Ionesco, Director, Environment and Migration Division of the International Organisation for Migration, and Karl Donert, Vice-President  of the Committee, on Democracy, Social Cohesion and Global Challenges and Head of the Working Group on "Climate and Human Rights" of the Conference of INGOs at  the Council of Europe

The COP21 label given by France to this event

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 The impact of the climate accidents : It is the record temperatures that have the greatest impact on daily life

10/7/2015

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Towards an ambitious agreement in Paris
INGOs Side-event at the Council of Europe - 29 September 2015

According to Yves HAUSS, Climatologist, changing temperatures proved, both globally and in Alsace in recent years.

Seasonal averages, calculated over thirty years, increased significantly everywhere. But it is the extreme events that are dangerous for humans and the environment.

Among the examples cited, Strasbourg experienced the temperature of Marseille in August 2003 and that of Algiers in April 2007. In April and July 2010, Moscow experienced temperatures equivalent to those of Cairo and Tunis, which resulted in fires drill and bogs of unusually long and a significant loss of crops which required discontinuation of exports

The air is, for Yves Hauss, a good shared without border. It brings humans together but its degradation affects the entire planet

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    Photo
    Français
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    Palais de l'Europe
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    Radek Maly, Jose Mendes Bota, Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, Anne-Marie Chavanon, Lord Georges Foulkes, Anna Rurka, Christine de la Maisonneuve, Michel Ballereau
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    Agora Building - Council of Europe

    Texts on climate by the committee

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    Link to the dedicated website
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    Living together in multicultural societies : respect, dialogue, interaction

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    The European Local Democracy Week (ELDW) is organized, every year, in October in Europe and beyond. It offers an opportunity to joint actions with local and regional authorities and involvement of citizens

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