Happy International Human rights day! Today the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is 67 years old.
But if you're wondering what today has to do with Greenpeace then you're not alone. When we launched our most recent tuna campaign - which shone a light on the abuse of tuna fishers - a few people cried "ssh, that's not your job!"
In reality, it’s probably every human’s responsibility to stand up for human rights. But Greenpeace also has a specific responsibility to talk about human rights. Here are two reasons why.
1. Environmental disasters - caused by climate change - destroy our human rights.
A child’s human right to education is made impossible when their school is washed away by a flood. Our rights to food and good health are threatened by droughts and extreme climate events. In fact, climate change could mean that up to an additional 600 million people will face hunger by 2080.
Even worse, the latest climate science warns us that as our world warms, we’ll be faced with more rain and more droughts - meaning more environmental disasters. If you’ve been watching the news this week, you’ll have seen the devastating impact that floods have had on people in Chennai and in the UK. In the past 7 years, almost 160 million people were forced from their homes as a result of extreme weather.
The people who will feel the bluntest impact of these environmental crises are usually the most marginalised members of society. They’re more likely to be women and girls and more likely to be from Indigenous communities. It’s not just our job to fight for environmental protection, but to stand up for humans on the frontlines of climate change too.
When the United Nations agreed the Declaration on Human Rights in the aftermath of the Second World War, governments from across the planet came together to put aside their differences and unite for a common good. This week, world leaders are meeting in Paris for the United Nations climate talks and they have a chance to make history again. Government officials will attempt to iron out the details of a global deal to tackle climate change and if we’re to halt the rate of environmental disasters, it must aim to phase out the dirty energy that warms our world. Otherwise we know we are condemning ourselves to more and more Storm Desmonds.
This week Amnesty International joined us in calling for 100% renewable energy, together we said "Human rights cannot be protected unless governments phase out fossil fuels.”
2. Often the worst companies and governments don’t just have contempt for the environment - they have contempt for people too.
When organisations like Greenpeace go after the environmental bad guys, we can’t ignore the human impact of their dodgy practices. This year, we launched a campaign against John West. The company is on course to break its promise to achieve 100% sustainable tuna in 2016. But its parent company is also linked to severe human rights abuses in its supply chain The seafood industry has consistently showed that environmental degradation often comes coupled with human rights abuses. We couldn’t ignore that - so this year our fishing campaign didn’t just talk about sustainability, it talked about human rights.
Another example. Palm oil companies are destroying the rainforest - but they’re also building their wealth on the backs of unfairly treated migrant workers. Most of the progress made in the palm oil industry has been on deforestation, but less effort has been made to address the rights of people working for these companies. Defending the environment and protecting human rights must go hand in hand.
We'll continue to campaign for solutions to combat climate change that benefit both people and planet and continue to hold the worst corporations to account. Today especially reminds us how important these campaigns are. So if you feel like supporting International Human Rights day, how about calling for 100% renewable energy? Or telling tuna companies you won't buy products tarred with human rights abuses?
