‘There are no human rights on a dead planet’

This Sunday the Amnesty International Bristol group will be taking to the streets to join their fellow Bristolians in demanding strong climate action at the Bristol Climate March.

We will be there urging local, national and world leaders to take action. We will be there standing up for the poorest and most disadvantaged in our local and global community. We will be there to call for action in tackling climate change because climate change is one of the biggest human rights issues we face.

For some, it might come as a surprise to see the iconic Amnesty International candle alongside the likes of Greenpeace but, in the words of Greenpeace’s Executive Director Kumi Naidoo, “There are no human rights on a dead planet”.

The consequences of climate change are already being felt across the globe. Whether we are talking about rising sea levels, extreme weather events or damaged ecosystems, we can see the impacts hitting humans hard and the poorest hardest.

At the heart of the human rights movement is a fundamental belief in dignity, human dignity. This has lead Amnesty International as a global movement to actively campaign on economic, social and cultural rights – to me or you, that is things like the right to health, education and housing.

This led Amnesty International to launch high-profile campaigns such as the campaign supporting residents in slums in Nairobi who were facing forced eviction and house demolition for a new development.

Just like a government who bulldozes houses in slums without offering alternative accommodation, climate change can and does leave people homeless. Already in coastal areas in Bangladesh or in downtown New Orleans, we can see the devastating effect extreme weather events and rising sea levels can have.

As our world warms, these impacts of climate change will only worsen, and the rights of millions if not billions of people will be violated. Environmental pollution is already taking a heavy toll in many parts of the world – people in the Niger Delta have been suffering the devastating consequences of oil spills for decades.

But there is an alternative and it is in the hands of our local, national and international leaders.

When they meet in Paris next week at the UN COP21 summit, they have the power to agree to action that will stop the worst impacts of climate change. If there is political will, we will see fewer people displaced, in deprivation and deprived of their basic human rights.

For many of us though the level of the potential harm on humans combined with the scale of the challenge in bringing about the necessary change means that we can be frozen into inaction. It is what Amnesty International founder Peter Benenson called “a sense of impotence”.

However, he did take action. What he did was to create a movement that empowered ordinary people. A movement which shows that if enough ordinary people shine a light into the dark, we can bring about change.

This is why Bristol Amnesty will be marching in Bristol this Sunday to demand strong action from our government, and it is why we hope you will join us. Because together we are stronger.

Read more about the Bristol Climate March.