File photo of a joint briefing during the UN Climate Summit earlier this year. Photo courtesy of UN Photo/Loey Felipe
SYDNEY, May 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Indigenous residents of low-lying islands off northern Australia will submit a landmark complaint with the United Nations on Monday accusing the government of violating their human rights by failing to tackle climate change.
The Torres Strait Islanders will tell the UN Human Rights Committee in
Geneva that rising seas caused by global warming are threatening their
homelands and culture, lawyers representing the group said.
The lawyers, from the non-profit ClientEarth, said the case was the first
of its kind to be lodged with the UN equating government inaction on climate change to a human rights violation.
In their complaint, the islanders ask the UN to find that international
human rights law requires Australia to reduce its emissions to at least 65
percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
The country should become carbon neutral by 2050, phasing out its use and
export of coal completely, they say.
The complaint also demands the government allocate Aus$20 million (US$14 million) for emergency infrastructure like sea walls to protect Torres Strait communities.
“Advancing seas are already threatening homes, as well as damaging burial
grounds and sacred cultural sites,” the claimants said in a statement.
“Many Islanders are worried that their islands could quite literally
disappear in their lifetimes without urgent action.”
The complaint is being lodged just days before Australian elections in
which the conservative government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison trails in opinion polls.
Climate change has been a key campaign issue, with Morrison’s government accused of dragging its feet on emission reduction efforts while backing the expansion of coal mining. — NNN-AGENCIES
