In RE: National Inquiry on the Impact of Climate Change on the Human Rights of
Filipino People, and the Responsibility Therefor, if any, of the Carbon Majors, CHRNI-2016-0001
Amicus Curiae brief, submitted by Timothy Crosland, Director, Plan B
“If we don’t act boldly, the bill that could come due will be mass
migrations, and cities submerged and nations displaced, and food
supplies decimated, and conflicts born of despair.”
Barack Obama, September 2016
"If we don't speak out now, if we don't raise our voice, then we will
die."
Saul Luciano Lliuya, a Peruvian farmer whose Andean village is
threatened by glacial melt
Contents
1.
Introduction
2.
Jurisdiction
2.1 ‘The effects doctrine’, the ‘no harm principle’ and the duty to safeguard human rights
2.2 Jurisdiction in relation to the Petition
2.3 Jurisdiction over the ‘carbon majors’
3.
The Relationship between climate change and human rights generally
4.
The Right to Life
4.1 When is the right to life engaged?
4.2 The right to an effective remedy
4.3 Determining responsibility
5.
The causal relationship between anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and
interference with the rights to Filipinos
5.1 Technical assessments relating to the risks from anthropogenic greenhouse gas
emissions generally
5.2 Assessments specific to The Philippines
6.
Evaluating the responsibility of ‘carbon majors’ for violations of human rights, and
specifically the right to life
6.1 The horizontal application of human rights – the direct obligation of carbon majors
to avoid interference with the right to life
6.1.2 Whether a person or entity has breached the right to life
6.2 Breach of an obligation of a duty of care regarding the impacts of their activities on
The Philippines
6.3 Accountable on the basis of the principle of ‘the polluter pays’
6.4 Date of knowledge
6.5 Acts and omissions
6.6 Causation
6.6.1 Introduction
6.6.2 Adapting the 'but for' test in cases of complex causation
7.
State accountability
8.
Conclusion
9.
Remedies
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