JANNA JIHAD, PALESTINE

 

JANNA JIHAD, PALESTINE

Janna Jihad is a teenage girl who has grown up in the Palestinian village of Nabi Salih, located north of Ramallah city in the West Bank. It is part of Palestinian territory that has been under Israel’s military occupation since 1967.

Janna, and Palestinian children like her, are denied their rights and face discrimination on a daily basis. The Israeli army regularly arrests children from Janna’s village, often during raids on their homes in the middle of the night while families are asleep. Children struggle to access their rights to education and freedom of movement because of barriers and checkpoints which force delays on any journey. It can take hours to get to school instead of a few minutes. People find it hard to travel for work and to earn a living to support their families. For anyone who is sick, it can be nearly impossible to get to a hospital.

In 2009, when Janna was three, her community used their right to peaceful protest and began weekly demonstrations. But they were met with violence. When she was seven, Janna’s uncle and her friend were killed by the Israeli military. Janna used her mother’s phone to record what was happening and reveal the truth. By the time she was a teenager, her live videos were being watched by hundreds of thousands of people around the world. In 2018, Janna became the youngest press card-carrying journalist in the world, at the age of 12. Yet she has faced many threats for her work.I started journalism at the age of seven because I wanted the whole world to know what is happening here and how we live in fear and uncertainty. I want a normal life, a normal childhood.

Janna Jihad

WHAT ABOUT CHILDREN’S RIGHT TO A VOICE?

 

WHAT ABOUT CHILDREN’S RIGHT TO A VOICE?

One of the UNCRC’s General Principles is that children have the right to participate – and to be listened to – in all decisions that affect them. Participation rights are linked to children’s levels of maturity and apply accordingly. This is to support their development, but it also helps everyone achieve better-informed decisions. It strengthens society.

Like adults, children have the right to voice their opinions and to peacefully protest. Today, all over the world young people and children are using this right. They are rising up to demand climate justice and racial equality, amongst other calls. Yet their perspectives are still often overlooked or dismissed.

Pakistan:impact of climate change Deadly floods reminder to wealthy countries to remedy unfettered climate change

 

Pakistan: Deadly floods reminder to wealthy countries to remedy unfettered climate change

• States, in line with their human rights obligation of international co-operation and assistance must support Pakistan as floods devastate lives and impact a range of human rights 

• The floods serve as a stark warning of the devastating impact of climate change and states most responsible for the climate crisis must provide compensation and remedy for the loss and damage caused by the climate crisis. 

Wealthier states that have responsibility for climate change must remedy historic injustices and support low-emitting countries like Pakistan after deadly floods have shown the devastating impact of climate change, said Amnesty International.  

“States that have enriched themselves using fossil fuels and other unsustainable practices must meet their international obligations. They must provide compensation and other forms of remedy for the loss and damage people are suffering in Pakistan,” said Rimmel Mohydin, Amnesty International’s Pakistan Campaigner. 

Since 1959, Pakistan has accounted for 0.4% of historic emissions and yet it is listed as one of the most climate vulnerable places in the world, according to joint findings by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. These floods alone have by early estimates, cost the country USD 10 billion. The recent floods are a devastating reminder that the consequences of climate change are intensifying, underscoring the importance of states catching up with their adaptation and mitigation efforts.  

Pakistan response  

According to government reports, the flood damage in Pakistan is far-reaching, leaving close to three quarters of a million people without access to safe and adequate housing. Large swathes of agricultural lands have been flooded, destroying crops and threatening the country’s food supply. The Federal Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman said on Monday that a “third of the country is under water,” dubbing it a “crisis of unimaginable proportions.” Damage to infrastructure and internet and phone connectivity is severely hampering rescue and relief operations. 

Climate change involves not only rising temperatures, but also extreme weather events. While flooding can be caused by a variety of factors, rising temperatures can make the likelihood of extreme rainfall much higher, overwhelming Pakistan’s river embankments in some areas. The 2010 floods, which killed 1,700 people, were also found to be largely attributable to rising global temperatures. 

“The destruction and death in Pakistan has shown how these floods risk entrenching existing inequalities and putting millions at risk of homelessness, hunger, ill-health and even premature death. The government must uphold the human rights of the affected communities and take preventive measures to protect those most at-risk from the impacts of the disaster,” said Rimmel Mohydin. 

Poverty and gender affect impact of floods 

The floods have had a particularly devastating impact on people living in poverty as many of them live in inadequate and poor-quality housing along riverbanks, low-lying areas and areas that are difficult to reach due to lack of adequate infrastructure. Little has been done so far to protect these communities from the impacts of climate change.  

Women are particularly adversely affected by the floods. According to the United Nations Population Fund, there are almost 650,000 pregnant women in the flood-affected areas, with almost 73,000 women expected to deliver in the next month. More than 1,000 health facilities are either partially or fully damaged in Sindh province, whereas 198 health facilities are damaged in affected districts in Balochistan.  

There is also a heightened possibility of women and girls being at risk of gender-based violence, according to UNICEF, owing to the breakdown of order and social protection mechanisms during a crisis. Menstrual hygiene must also be given its due consideration when developing relief programs, with the UNFPA estimating the victims of the floods to include 8.2 million women of reproductive age. 

“Existing inequalities based on people’s gender, socio-economic status, age, and other identities will no doubt be exacerbated by the floods. Marginalized groups, such as people living in poverty are bound to be much worse off. The newly-formed National Flood Response and Coordination Centre must take into account the needs and requirements of different communities as it plans its strategy on how to protect people from the distressing effects of the floods,” said Rimmel Mohydin. 

WHAT IS AMNESTY DOING TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE?

 

WHAT IS AMNESTY DOING TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE? 

There is an urgent need to put people and human rights at the centre of the climate change conversation. For Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, this means pushing for accountability for states who fail to act on climate change, just as we do with other human rights violations. 

Chiara Liguori, Policy Adviser, Amnesty International

Amnesty International’s work on climate change includes standing up for human rights in the Paris Agreement on climate change, contributing to stronger human rights standards on climate change, and supporting environmental groups as they put forward human rights arguments.

Given the urgency of this issue, an important part of our role is to help galvanize the human rights community, by showing how climate change is impacting people’s rights and highlighting how people are mobilizing to respond to the reality and the threat of climate change.

Amnesty is working with a variety of different groups in key countries to mount pressure against governments and corporations which are obstructing progress. Amnesty is also supporting young people, Indigenous peoples, trade unions and affected communities, to demand a rapid and just transition to a zero-carbon economy that leaves no one behind. Litigation and the use of national and regional human rights mechanisms are additional tools to keep up the pressure.

Amnesty International has built on its work supporting environmental defenders to facilitate the work of those protecting land, food, communities and people against climate impacts, extraction and expansion of fossil fuels and deforestation. Defending the civic space for information, participation and mobilization also contributes towards promoting more progressive climate policies.

OUR DEMANDS

Amnesty is calling for governments to:

• Do everything they can to help stop the global temperature rising by more than 1.5°C.
• Collectively reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to absolute zero before or by 2050. Richer countries should do this faster. By 2030, global emissions must be half as much as they were in 2010.
• Stop using and producing fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) as quickly as possible.
• Make sure that climate action is done in a way that does not violate anyone’s human rights, and reduces rather than increases inequality
• Make sure everyone, in particular those affected by climate change or the transition to a fossil-free economy, is properly informed about what is happening and is able to participate in decisions about their futures.
• Work together to fairly share the burden of climate change – richer countries must provide financial and technical support to people in developing countries who have suffered and will continue to suffer losses and damages caused by the climate crisis.
• Safeguard the rights of those displaced or at risk of displacement due to climate change.

WHY DO WE NEED TO STOP CLIMATE CHANGE?

 

WHY DO WE NEED TO STOP CLIMATE CHANGE?

Because we all deserve equal protection.

We are all born with fundamental human rights, yet these rights are under grave threat from climate change. While climate change threatens all of our lives in some way or other, people who experience discrimination are among those likely to be the worst affected. We are all equally deserving of protection from this universal threat.

Because there is nothing to lose from acting, and everything to gain.

Fighting the climate crisis gives us a chance to put the wellbeing of people first by ensuring a right to a healthy environment. This will give us an opportunity to enhance human rights, for example by enabling more people to access cleaner and cheaper energy resources and create job opportunities in new sectors.

Because we have the knowledge, power and ability to stop climate change. 

Many people are already working on creative, inspiring and innovative solutions to address climate change. From citizens to companies to cities, there are people all over the world actively working on policies and campaigns and solutions that will protect people and the planet. Indigenous peoples and minority communities have for centuries developed sustainable ways of living with the environments that they call home. We can learn from them and, with their consent, benefit from their know-how to inform our own efforts to find a different way of interacting with our planet.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR STOPPING CLIMATE CHANGE?

 

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR STOPPING CLIMATE CHANGE?

After placing plantiffs in a position of climate danger, defendants have continued to act with deliberate indifference to the known danger they helped create and enhance. A destabilized climate system poses unusually serious risks of harm to plaintiff’s lives and their bodily integrity and dignity. 

Juliana vs United States Government, Lawsuit filed by Children Against the US Government

States

States have the obligation to mitigate the harmful effects of climate change by taking the most ambitious measures possible to prevent or reduce greenhouse emissions within the shortest possible time-frame. While all countries must take all reasonable steps to reduce emissions to the full extent of their abilities, wealthy states must lead the way, by decarbonizing their economies more quickly than developing countries.  

States must also take all necessary steps to help everyone within their jurisdiction to adapt to the foreseeable and unavoidable effects of climate change, thus minimizing the impact of climate change on their human rights. This is true irrespective of whether the state is responsible for those effects, because states have an obligation to protect people from harms caused by third parties.

States must take steps to tackle climate change as fast and as humanely as possible. In their efforts to address climate change, they must not resort to measures that directly or indirectly violate human rights. For example, conservation areas or renewable energy projects must not be created on the lands of Indigenous peoples without consulting them and getting their consent.

Wealthy states must provide sufficient financing and support to developing countries to allow them to meet ambitious emission reduction targets and implement effective climate change adaptation measures. States most responsible for the climate crisis must also provide compensation and other forms of remedies for the losses and damages people have already suffered due to the climate crisis.

All states must take steps to tackle climate change as fast and as humanely as possible. In their efforts to address climate change, they must not resort to measures that directly or indirectly violate human rights. For example, conservation areas or renewable energy projects must not be created on the lands of Indigenous peoples without consulting them and getting their consent. The transition to a zero-carbon economy must be just and lead to a more equal society, rather than putting most of the costs and burdens on those least able to carry them.

In all measures, states should respect the right to information and participation for all affected people, as well as their right to access effective remedies for human rights abuses.

However, the current pledges made by governments to mitigate climate change are completely inadequate, as they would lead to a catastrophic 2.7°C increase in average global temperatures over pre-industrial levels by 2100. People, including children, in many countries around the world are using human rights arguments to take their governments to court for their failure to establish sufficient climate change mitigation targets and measures. In several cases, including Belgium, Germanyand the Netherlands, courts have already ruled in their favour. 

Corporations

Businesses also have a responsibility to respect human rights. To meet this responsibility, companies must assess the potential effects of their activities on human rights and put in place measures to prevent negative impacts. They must make such findings and any prevention measures public. Companies must also take measures to remedy human rights abuses they cause or to which they contribute, either by themselves or in cooperation with other actors. Such responsibilities extend to human rights harms resulting from climate change.

Corporations, and particularly fossil fuel companies, must also immediately put measures in place to minimize greenhouse emissions – including by shifting their portfolio towards renewable energy produced in a manner compatible with human rights– and make relevant information about their emissions and mitigation efforts public. These efforts must extend to all the major subsidiaries, affiliates and entities in their supply chain.

Fossil fuel companies have been historically among the most responsible for climate change – and this continues today. Research shows that just 100 fossil fuel-producing companies are responsible for 71% of global greenhouse gas emissions since 1988. There is growing evidence that major fossil fuel companies have known for decades about the harmful effects of burning fossil fuels and have attempted to suppress that information and block efforts to tackle climate change.

The global agro-industrial food system and the large scale plantations on which it depends, are often associated with high greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and land degradation, as well as forced evictions of Indigenous Peoples, attacks on environmental activists and other human rights violations.

Private financial institutions, such as banks, asset managers and insurance companies, also play a key role in driving the climate crisis, especially when they fund fossil fuel companies and businesses linked to deforestation without any climate-related conditions.

WHY IS CLIMATE CHANGE A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE?

 

WHY IS CLIMATE CHANGE A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE?

The dramatic impacts of climate change have exposed with devastating clarity, how integral a healthy environment is to the enjoyment of all our other rights. 

Agnes Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International

Human rights are intimately linked with climate change because of its devastating effect on not just the environment but our own wellbeing. In addition to threatening our very existence, climate change is having harmful impacts on our rights to life, health, food, water, housing and livelihoods.

The longer governments wait to take meaningful action, the harder the problem becomes to solve, and the greater the risk that emissions will be reduced through means that increase inequality rather than reduce it.

These are some of the ways climate change is impacting and will impact our human rights:

Right to life – We all have the right to life, and to live in freedom and safety. But climate change threatens the safety of billions of people on this planet. The most obvious example is through extreme weather-related events, such as storms, floods and wildfires. In 2019, cyclones in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwekilled more than 1,000 people, while Typhoon Haiyan claimed at least 6,300 lives in the Philippines in 2013.Heat stress is among the most deadly impacts. The summer heatwave in Europe in 2003 resulted in the deaths of 35,000 people. However, there are many other less visible ways that climate change threatens lives. The World Health Organization predicts that climate change will cause 250,000 deaths per year between 2030 and 2050, due to malaria, malnutrition, diarrhoea and heat stress.

Right to health – We all have the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. According to the IPCC, the major health impacts of climate change will include greater risk of injury, disease and death due to more intense heatwaves and fires; increased risk of under-nutrition as a result of diminished food production in poor regions; and increased risks of food- and water-borne diseases, and vector-borne diseases. Children exposed to traumatic events such as natural disasters, exacerbated by climate change, can suffer from post-traumatic stress disorders. The health impacts of climate change demand an urgent response, with unmitigated warming threatening to undermine health systems and core global health objectives.

Right to housing – We all have a right to an adequate standard of living for ourselves and our families, including adequate housing. However, climate change threatens our right to housing in a variety of ways. Extreme weather events like floods and wildfires are already destroying people’s homes, leaving them displaced. Drought, erosion and flooding can also over time change the environment whilst sea-level rises threaten the homes of millions of people around the world in low-lying territories. Drought, erosion and flooding can also over time change the environment whilst sea-level rises threaten the homes of millions of people around the world in low-lying territories.

Rights to water and to sanitation – We all have the right to safe water for personal and domestic use and to sanitation that ensures we stay healthy. But a combination of factors such as melting snow and ice, reduced rainfall, higher temperatures and rising sea levels show that climate change is affecting and will continue to affect the quality and quantity of water resources. Already more than one billion people do not have access to clean water, and climate change will make this worse. Extreme weather events such as cyclones and floods affect water and sanitation infrastructure, leaving behind contaminated water and thus contributing to the spread of water-borne diseases. Sewage systems, especially in urban areas, will also be affected.

WHO IS IMPACTED THE MOST BY CLIMATE CHANGE?

 

WHO IS IMPACTED THE MOST BY CLIMATE CHANGE?

You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes. 

Greta Thunberg, Climate activist and Founder of Climate School Strike

Climate change is and will continue to harm all of us unless governments take action. However, its effects are likely to be much more pronounced for certain groups – for example, those communities dependent on agricultural or coastal livelihoods – as well as those who are generally already vulnerable, disadvantaged and subject to discrimination. 

These are some of the ways climate change can and is exacerbating inequalities:

• Between developed and developing nations:

At a national level, those in low-lying, small island states and less developed countries will be and already are among those worst affected. People in the Marshall Islands already regularly experience the devastating flooding and storms that destroy their homes and livelihoods. The 2021 heatwave in North America made headlines across Europe and North America, but some of the worst effects of global warming were also felt in places like Pakistan. Temperatures in Jacobadad hit a staggering 52°C – hotter than the human body can stand — and electricity blackouts compounded the misery of millions without access to air conditioning or clean water.

• Between different ethnicities and classes:

The effects of climate change and fossil fuel-related pollution also run along ethnicity and class lines. In North America, it is largely poorer communities of colour who are forced to breathe toxic air because their neighbourhoods are more likely to be situated next to power plants and refineries. They experience markedly higher rates of respiratory illnesses and cancers, and African Americans are three times more likely to die of airborne pollution than the overall US population. 

• Between genders:

Women and girls are disproportionately affected by climate change, reflecting the fact that they are more likely in many countries to be marginalized and disadvantaged. For example, women are often confined to roles and jobs that make them more reliant on natural resources. Because they face barriers in accessing financial or technical resources or are denied land ownership, they are less able to adapt to climate change. This means that they are more at risk from the impacts of climate-related events as they are less able to protect themselves against it and will find it harder to recover.

• Between generations:

Future generations will experience the worsening effects unless action is taken now by governments. However, children and young people are already suffering due to their specific metabolism, physiology and developmental needs. This means, for example, that the forced displacement experienced by communities impacting a whole range of rights – from water, sanitation and food to adequate housing, health, education and development – is likely to be particularly harmful to children.

• Between communities:

Indigenous peoples are among the communities most impacted by climate change. Due to a close interrelationship with the natural world, as well as in some cases a history of expropriations and forced evictions, they often live in marginal lands and fragile ecosystems which are particularly sensitive to alterations in the physical environment. They maintain a close connection with nature and their traditional lands on which their livelihoods and cultural identity depend. Despite having important knowledge about the natural environment of their territories and playing a crucial role in the conservation of biodiversity and natural resources, they are often excluded from climate decision-making, including when climate-related initiatives encroach on their lives and territories.

WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE?

 

WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE?

The Wilmington community, they are mostly low income, so the heat waves are very detrimental because they cannot afford air-conditioning. And because they are still close to the refineries and to oil extraction, they have to shut their windows.

Alicia Rivera, Community organizer and Climate activist, USA

The effects of climate change are already being felt now, but they will get worse. Global warming has reached approximately 1°C above pre-industrial levels. Every half degree (or even less) of global warming counts.

It is important to remember that no one list of the effects of climate change can be exhaustive. It is very likely that heatwaves will occur more often and last longer, and that extreme precipitation events will become more intense and frequent in many regions. The oceans will continue to warm and acidify, and global mean sea level will continue to rise. All of this will have, and is already starting to have, a devastating impact on human life.

The urgent need to address climate change has become even clearer with the release of a major report in October 2018 by the world’s leading scientific body for the assessment of climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC warns that in order to avoid catastrophic global warming, we must not reach 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels – or at very minimum not exceed that. The report sets out the massive differences between the 1.5°C and 2°C scenarios. 

In another report published in August 2021, the IPCC confirmed that unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C above pre-industrial levels will be beyond reach.

However, there is still time to limit climate change. In the 2021 report, the IPCC said strong and sustained reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouses gases could quickly improve air quality, and in 20 to 30 years global temperatures could stabilize. Our governments must therefore take immediate steps right now to change course. The longer we take to do this, the more we will have to rely on costly technologies that could have harmful impacts on human rights.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the report was nothing less than a code red for humanity: “The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable”. He called on all nations, especially the G20 economies, to join the net zero emissions coalition, and reinforce their promises on slowing and down and reversing global warming with credible concrete steps. “Inclusive and green economies, prosperity, cleaner air and better health are possible for all, if we respond to this crisis with solidarity and courage”, he said.

WHAT CAUSES CLIMATE CHANGE?

 

WHAT CAUSES CLIMATE CHANGE?

We are humans who want the same thing every other human wants — a safe place to live on this planet we call home. So while our work must continue to be unbiased and objective, increasingly we are raising our voices, adding to the clear message that climate change is real and humans are responsible, the impacts are serious and we must act now. 

KATHARINE HAYHOE, CLIMATE SCIENTIST

There is an overwhelming scientific consensus that global warming is mostly man-made: climate scientists have come to this conclusion almost unanimously.

One of the biggest drivers by far is our burning of fossil fuels – coal, gas and oil – which has increased the concentration of greenhouse gases – such as carbon dioxide – in our atmosphere. This, coupled with other activities like clearing land for agriculture, is causing the average temperature of our planet to increase. In fact, scientists are as certain of the link between greenhouse gases and global warming as they are of the link between smoking and lung cancer.

This is not a recent conclusion. The scientific community has collected and studied the data on this for decades. Warnings about global warming started making headlines back in the late 1980s.

In 1992, 165 nations signed an international treaty, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). They have held meetings annually ever since (called “Conference of the Parties” or COP), with the aim of developing goals and methods to reduce climate change as well as adapt to its already visible effects. Today, 197 countries are bound by the UNFCCC.

WHAT IS CLIMATE CHANGE?

 

WHAT IS CLIMATE CHANGE?

The planet’s climate has constantly been changing over geological time, with significant fluctuations of global average temperatures.

However, this current period of warming is occurring more rapidly than any past events. It has become clear that humanity has caused most of the last century’s warming by releasing heat-trapping gases—commonly referred to as greenhouse gases—to power our modern lives. We are doing this through burning fossil fuels, agriculture and land-use and other activities that drive climate change. Greenhouse gases are at the highest levels they have ever been over the last 800,000 years. This rapid rise is a problem because it’s changing our climate at a rate that is too fast for living things to adapt to.

Climate change involves not only rising temperatures, but also extreme weather events, rising sea levels, shifting wildlife populations and habitats, and a range of other impacts.