0
 

National EDO Home Page
 
 

NR mapEDO Northern Rivers
 
 
Need legal advice with your environmental or planning issue? Call our free Environmental Law Line
 

Link to Green Power web site
The EDO supports the renewable energy industry by being a Green Power customer.
 

Environmental Defender's Office
New South Wales (Ltd)
Weekly Bulletin

eBulletin Archives
eBulletin Archives
date published
number
582
581
580
579
578
577
576
575
574
573
572
571
570
569
568
567
~
566
565
564
563
562
561
560
559
558
557
556
555
554
553
552
551
550
549
548
547
546
545
544
543
542
541
540
539
27 Nov 2007
538
537
536
535
534
23 Oct 2007
533
532
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
[Subscribe to the weekly email bulletin]

Special EDO eBulletin- 10 December 2007: No 540

International Human Rights Day 2007

1. The EDO in Papua New Guinea

2. Caring for Country

3. Climate Change and the Torres Strait Islands

International Human Rights Day 2007

International Human Rights Day is celebrated globally on 10 December every year to commemorate the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948. The UDHR establishes human rights as unchallengeable and applicable to all people regardless of race, gender or politics. Human rights include civil and political rights, as well as social, economic and cultural rights that assure people of their right to basic life standards.
 
No binding international agreement exists that has environmental rights as its focus. This is despite the proven greater environmental burdens of pollution, industrial facilities, crime and ecosystem degradation borne by racial minorities, residents of developing nations, women, and particularly the poor. These groups also have significantly lower environmental access to goods such as nutritious food, clean air and water, health care, parks, recreation and education, to name a few.
 
The Environmental Defender’s Office is committed to improving access to environmental information and justice to help protect the environment through law. Below are a number of our initiatives and projects that are linked to the promotion of environmental human rights.

1. The EDO in Papua New Guinea

The Environmental Defender’s Office is able to support the Environment Law Centre (ELC) and more recently the Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights (CELCOR) in Papua New Guinea through a generous grant from the US-based MacArthur Foundation.

The EDO provides litigation training and support to these centres, as well as facilitating lawyer exchanges and external training. Environmental lawyers in PNG find themselves in an extremely challenging working environment, where they are often at great personal risk in challenging powerful logging interests and corruption. Over the years, the ELC has won a number of precedent-setting cases, including in 2002 the prevention of logging at Collingwood Bay, which was litigated behalf of the Maisin people. This win saved 40,000 hectares of rainforest from logging and upheld the rights of traditional landowners.

2. Caring for Country

The EDO has recently published Caring for Country: A Guide to NSW Environmental Law for Aboriginal Communities, which is part of an ongoing project initially funded by the Law and Justice Foundation. The Guide was written by Neva Collings, the first Aboriginal Liaison Officer of the EDO. To complement this groundbreaking publication, the EDO is holding a number of workshops in rural and regional NSW during 2007-2008. The Guide has been extremely well-received (please click here).
 
The Caring for Country Guide attempts to bridge the dearth of information available to Aboriginal communities for the management of their land, or for the preservation of environmental and culturally significant sites and relics. It is the first time that such a publication has existed in NSW, which recognises the fact that Aboriginal people are the second largest landholder group in NSW after the Crown. The Guide is written in a question-and-answer format, in plain legal language with case studies, and the EDO hopes it will help Aboriginal people to continue managing their country effectively.    The Guide is available on our website at www.edo.org.au/edonsw. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the Guide, or if you would like more information on our workshops, please email . 

3. Climate Change and the Torres Strait Islands

In early 2008 the Environmental Defender’s Office will be holding a seminar on the impact of climate change on the Torres Strait Islands, and the legal implications of its potential damaging effects. Further details will be forthcoming shortly.
 
In recent years the Torres Strait Islanders have been noticing a subtle shift in weather patterns - stronger winds and higher tides that have caused coastal damage and flooding - that cannot be explained by traditional weather patterns. If the predictions of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) eventuate, Torres Strait Islanders will experience higher storm tides, temperature increases and rainfall pattern changes resulting in more extreme weather in both the monsoon and dry seasons. This may have devastating effects on several island populations, with reduced access to fresh water, greater disease transference risk, the erosion and degradation of cultural sites and relics, as well as large changes in the distribution of plants and animals.
 
Such a predicament for the Torres Strait Islanders has both environmental and human rights implications. If Climate change makes some of these islands uninhabitable, the Islanders will be disconnected from their land- a key element in their culture and traditions. Despite the predicted increase in the frequency and severity of storm tides, there has been little action from the Queensland or Australian Governments to protect Torres Strait Islanders from these effects.

In the absence of political action, it is likely that the legal action will be the only option available to force governments to heed the concerns of Islanders about climate change.. Legal action brought by Islanders could focus on protecting native land rights, or their human right to take part in cultural life. Alternatively, legal action could focus on industries contributing significantly to climate change.

At the state level, the Queensland Environmental Protection Act 1994 includes an offence of causing serious or material environmental harm. It is arguable that coal-fired power stations in Queensland that are emitting greenhouse gases are causing environmental harm and contributing to impacts such as greater storm tides in the TSI region. One of the benefits of the Environment Protection Act is that it does not require a particular power station to be the only cause of climate change, which is caused by many factors. A Court could order a company to pay the costs of damage to infrastructure in the TSI caused by storms. A difficulty in bringing such an action is, however, that there may be a number of responses from the power station, including that they had all the necessary approvals.

The law of negligence is used to make people liable for their actions, so it is arguable that Australian governments at all levels have a duty of care to protect the land and culture of all Australian citizens, including Torres Strait Islanders, by acting to prevent harm to communities from climate change. However, most negligence claims are made against a particular company or person with clear responsibility for a problem, whereas climate change is a global problem with multiple causes.

All islands in the TSI region have successful native title claims over them. Damage caused by climate change will impact upon those rights, particularly if some land area disappears due to sea level rise and extreme weather events. Therefore, Islanders may be able to bring compensation claims because their native title rights have been extinguished under the Native Title Act.

In conclusion, all levels of government as well as industry clearly need to consider the financial and publicity risks of such legal cases brought against them, and consider a more mutually beneficial approach of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while also engaging in appropriate adaptation strategies.

To subscribe to this eBulletin, please go to http://www.edo.org.au/edonsw/site/friend_subscribe.php

To unsubscribe, please go to http://www.edo.org.au/edonsw/site/friend_unsubscribe.php

EDO New South Wales offers free telephone advice on the Environmental Law Line. Open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 2:30pm and 5:30pm. Call 02 9262 6989, or for NSW residents outside of Sydney call 1800 626 239.

If you require the assistance of an interpreter please call TIS National on 131 450 and ask to speak with the Environmental Defender’s Office on 02 9262 6989.

This bulletin is meant for your general information. Where possible, references are given so that readers can access original sources or find more information. Any information contained in this bulletin does not represent legal advice. The EDO does not endorse and is not affiliated with events advertised in the Community News section.

ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDER’S OFFICE LTD (NSW)
Level 1, 89 York St, Sydney NSW 2000
Telephone: (02) 9262 6989
Toll Free: 1800 626 239
Fax: (02) 9262 6998

ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDER’S OFFICE NORTHERN RIVERS
10 Club Lane, Lismore NSW 2480
PO Box 212, Lismore NSW 2480
Telephone: 1300 369 791
Fax: (02) 6622 6404

 

 

 

 

 

EDO NSW home

This site was last updated Friday 10 October, 2008
© 2008 Environmental Defender's Office (Ltd) NSW
Home | Disclaimer | Privacy | Contact Us | Support the EDO