Global meet bats for rights of climate migrants
STAFF REPORTER
Expressing concern over the plight of climate-induced migrants, civil society members and government leaders from climate vulnerable countries have said that such people deserve equity, capacity and human rights from the global community,
The concern was raised at a seminar on Climate Induced Displacement: Humanitarian and Right Perspective in the Turkish capital of Istanbul, according to a media release yesterday. The seminar was a side event of UN World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) and moderated by Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of COAST Bangladesh.
Chowdhury said climate vulnerable countries should not only depend on solutions for climate-induced displacement within the UNFCCC framework. The issue should be raised at UN forums like the General Assembly and Security Council, as it deserved a new protocol on the lines of the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Bangladeshs foreign secretary Shahidul Haque, who is also representing the country as vice-chair in the newly formed Platform on Disaster Displacement, said climate-induced displacement is increasing in climate vulnerable countries, such as Bangladesh, and needs the intervention of the global community, especially the UN, as they are not at all responsible for this fate.
Corazon Soliman, secretary of the Philippines governments department of social welfare, said her country is considering community-led relocation of population from climate-vulnerable areas. But the country deserves international assistance, she added.
Michel Mosselmans of ACT Alliance presented a report from Christian Aid on how coastal city populations
would become vulnerable in coming years.
The seminar was jointly organised by 15 civil society organisations from global south and north Act Alliance, Asian Disaster Risk Reduction Network (ADRRN), Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN), African Development Solution (ADESO), Christian Aid, Action Against Hunger (ACF) International, UN Major Group on Child and Youth (UNMGCY), COAST, EquityBD, NHN Pakistan, Refugee International USA, Ebill Society Palao, Dhaka University, Platform on Disaster Displacement (the Nansen Initiative Follow Up),
and Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
Nick Guttman, humanitarian director of Christian Aid, Gopal Krishna Siwakoti, chairman of APRRN, Mahbuba Nasreen from Dhaka University, Ton Van Zuthphen, country director of NRC in Turkey, Atle Solberg of Platform on Disaster Displacement, Degan Ali, executive director of ADESO, and Betrand Noiret of ACF International, among others, spoke at the seminar.
It may be mentioned that the Platform of Disaster Displacement was launched at WHS Istanbul on May 23. It is a state-led initiative by 30 countries, including France, Australia, Norway, Switzerland and Canada, with Germany in the chair.
