Meet Earth Lawyers | WIRED
The interpretation of ClientEarth’s fiduciary duties has never been used before, says Maryanak, but she is confident that it will change. “Trust is all about prudent risk management. Human rights are linked to the inherent dignity of the individual. The crises of the modern world are the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis. It is only natural that the law will evolve and adapt.”
IN THIS CASE Torres Strait Islanders, Marjanac and ClientEarth have invoked Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which protects the human right to participate in and enjoy their own culture.
Article 27 was originally designed to protect minority groups from genocide and mismanagement in the post-World War II colonies, but ClientEarth has sought to adapt and expand its protection.
In September 2019, Marjanak filed a petition with the UN Human Rights Committee, a body of 18 legal experts that enforces the treaty and acts as a de facto court (it has no enforcement powers, but states generally abide by its decisions).
ClientEarth argued that the Australian government’s failure to protect the fragile ecosystems of Torres Strait violated islanders’ Article 27 rights to their culture and their Article 17 rights to be free from interference with privacy, family and home. “We all have the right to a family, home and culture in accordance with international law,” says Marzhanak. “When I was there, even the children said: “If we had to leave the island, we could not leave our loved ones – we could not leave grandparents, great-grandparents.”
The Australian government fought back. In August 2020, he asked the committee to dismiss the case, denying that climate change affects the human rights of the islanders and that – since Australia is not the main or the only culprit of global warming – the impacts of climate change on its citizens are not its legal responsibility under legislation on human rights. Later that year, UN legal experts agreed with the islanders, but the Australian government redoubled its efforts, arguing that it was already doing enough to fight climate change and that future impacts were too uncertain to warrant action.
While waiting for the UN’s final decision, ClientEarth continued to put pressure on governments and organizations around the world. In July 2022, as the UK suffered record temperatures, the High Court ruled in its favor, finding that the government’s zero-emissions strategy violated the Climate Change Act and needed to be strengthened. The charity has brought cases in Poland from farmers, business owners and parents who have sued the government for failing to cut greenhouse gas emissions. A lawsuit is looming in France over corporate plastic pollution by nine of the country’s largest food companies.
Clarke and her team are helping the EU strengthen anti-deforestation legislation and are advising China’s Supreme Court on how to green the Belt and Road initiative. “We really know we’re winning when all we have to say is, ‘Don’t make me write another letter,'” she says.
Finally, in September 2022 – three years after the original complaint – the UN Human Rights Committee agreed with ClientEarth’s new interpretation of human rights in the face of climate change. Australia violated the right to culture and the right to be free from interference with privacy, family and home. The committee asked the Australian government to compensate the islanders “for the harm they have suffered, to undertake meaningful consultations to assess their needs and to take steps to ensure the safety of their communities.”
Getting the money will take time, Maryanak said, but the decision means that other low-lying areas are finally getting legal help in their fight to survive. The Committee specifically rejected Australia’s contention that individual countries cannot be held responsible for the effects of climate change and agreed that international environmental obligations are a human rights issue.
It was early evening in Torres Strait when the news reached Jessie Mosby. “I cried with joy, and I know my ancestors rejoiced,” he says. “I know this is not the end, but I know that many doors have been opened. I was so happy that I wouldn’t become a refugee. No one on earth should ask their children to put their grandmother’s remains in a bucket.”
This article was originally published in the January/February 2023 issue of WIRED UK magazine.