« Climate change is a human rights issue because it has links to the right to life »

“…Governments can do many things. But governments only do things when people want them to do things. We have been able to change things in the Maldives because we have been able to galvanize the people into political activism… Therefore, grass-root activities and especially a vibrant democracy are important to take up to the challenges of climate change. Human rights become an important issue because, as it has been pointed out, we are talking about the destruction of a civilization. The Maldives have been around for the past 2,000 years. We have a written history of 2,000 years.

In fact, I just found out that our burial grounds have cowry shells in them. So Maldivians must have come here a long time ago…In our minds, therefore, climate change, sea-level rise and climatic aberrations are all very fundamental human rights issues. Having been a victim of torture myself, you will understand that it is not easy for me to say this. I am not trying to dilute the definition but we have to understand that there are core human rights values that we all share. Pain is a core human right value. Whichever culture you come from, when you are kicked in it hurts …and when you are in solitary confinement.

But for us to be able to come up with a solution to this we have to start thinking about how we might to be able to safeguard these core values. In my mind, safeguarding the core human rights values are also linked to, in a sense, secondary issues: climate change, poverty, and so on. If we are to protect even the fundamentals, the classical idea of human rights, we have to be able to include other issues in the definition of human rights. Climate change is a human rights issue because it has links to the right to life. So we feel that what is very important right now is to consolidate democracy in the Maldives”.

Climate change has an impact on the rights of citizens, but we have to think as global citizens

At the panel organized by the IPU and the European Parliament within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Public Forum 2009 held in September in Geneva, two participants gave their views on the impact that climate change can have on human rights.

Many developing countries are currently advancing the argument that once upon a time the developed world cut down the trees and spoiled the environment, and that it is now our turn. That argument does not hold water. It is a different issue to issues of trade at the WTO. This deals with the survival of the planet. The developed world must help the developing countries in order to identify alternative means of energy, renewable energy, and new technology. There should be some exchange and some funding in order to help us, the developing countries, tackle the issue of climate change. But I totally disagree with the argument that it is our turn now. It is a dangerous stand to take. Climate change has an impact on the rights of citizens, but we have to think of the rights of us as global citizens of the planet. If we do not, there won’t be any planet for us to live on. That is the way one should look at it. It is wrong to look at it from the perspective that we have to protect our own and at the same time destroy the planet.