International Human Rights Law

UN Decision on Torres Strait Islanders a Major Win for Indigenous Peoples and Climate Justice

UN Decision on Torres Strait Islanders a Major Win for Indigenous Peoples and Climate Justice

The UN Human Rights Committee has found that Australia violated the rights of Torres Strait Islanders by failing to adequately protect them from the impacts of climate change, in a major decision with implications for climate justice and the protection of Indigenous Peoples’ rights in the face of climate change, as reported by Kristen Lyons in the Law Society of New South Wales Journal. The Committee concluded that Australia’s insufficient climate action constituted a violation of the Islanders rights to enjoy their culture and “be free from arbitrary interferences with their private life, family, and home,” as the UN High Commissioner for Rights press release states.

Weekend Feature: Who is Accountable When Climate Change Displaces Indigenous People?

Weekend Feature: Who is Accountable When Climate Change Displaces Indigenous People?

Climate change will be the third iteration of displacement inflicted on Indigenous communities by the United States, all of which threaten the enjoyment of the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

French Court Recognizes Country’s First Environmentally-Impacted Migrant

In confirming a Bangladeshi man’s residence permit renewal, a French appeals court has made legal history by taking into account environmental conditions in the applicant’s country of origin. In an apparent first, the Bordeaux-based court “effectively declared that the environment - air pollution - meant it was unsafe to send this man back,” according to Dr. Gary Fuller, an air pollution scientist at Imperial College London.