While the final outcome of international negotiation (Cop 15) on climate change is still being debated, impacts have started affecting millions of people in developing, least developing and extremely vulnerable countries. It is felt that there is dearth of legal entitlements even in national and domestic legal frameworks of countries. Some people argue that there is a need of taking legal action against the climatic sinners making them own impacts of climate change. With Effort of Oxfam India, a planning meeting for National People’s tribunal on climate crisis was organised in New Delhi on 9 September 2010.
The purpose of the tribunal was to explore state responsibility and accountability for violation of range of rights of people. Victims of climate change, civil society, experts, scientists, the media, people from judiciary and lawyers and government officials as duty bearers were part of the tribunal providing written, verbal and audio-visual evidences before it. There was a jury which comprises people having vast experience in the field of climate change science, law on environment and climate change, agriculture, food security, gender, social work, government, policy makers & people’s representatives.
The tribunal was akin to moot court and heard and recorded evidences on impacts of climate change in order to ascertain the state responsibility and responsibility of developed countries to redress climate change impact in the developing world.
Various eminent personalities were part of this meeting and expressed their views in favour of humanity & nature. Representation was also seen from rain fed, flood plains and drought affected Himalayan regions from the States of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh along with key stakeholders from Delhi.
Reflections, experiences from NGO representatives were also shared from various states. For instance it was mentioned that there has been a big shift in the cropping patterns due to the uncertainty of rains and the depleting water resources. Apart from paucity of sustainable ways of farming, the migration and shift seen, of the labour from agriculture to industries and cities has become both a cause and effect of agriculture becoming a less viable option of livelihood. Furthermore, the shift in land use- from agriculture to industrial or infrastructural development has caused an irreversible damage to agriculture. The link between democracy and development is often contested, though; there have been a number of attempts to incorporate freedom and democracy as essential components of development. Some suggest that a country’s development status should not be measured merely on the basis of income and infrastructure, but also on choices and the extent of freedom available to its citizens.
So how human rights and development are important for development? The Finnish NGO Foundation for Human Rights (KIOS) and Political Parties of Finland for Democracy (DEMO Finland) organized a two day seminar (14-15 Sept) in Helsinki and attempted to fathom the already eulogized link between development and democracy.
The seminar was participated by a number democracy and development enthusiasts, professionals, human rights activists, journalists and students. Representatives from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Rwanda shared their experiences of working as human rights defenders and NGO activists. The seminar started with welcoming remarks of KIOS Chairperson Anne Romar and continued for two days with stimulating discussions and development debate.
Key speakers of the programme included Mr. Paavo Väyrynen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, Finland; Dr. Richard Youngs, Director General, FRIDE; Mr. Kris Berwouts, Director, European network for Central Africa and Ms Anjana Shakya, Chairperson, Himalayan Monitors for Human Rights (HimRights) Nepal.
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