Standing up for climate action

Right now, we are facing a catastrophic threat to human rights. The climate crisis is already impacting people across the globe. Rising seas are displacing people, temperature rises are damaging our food production and extreme weather events are leading to loss of life, housing and more.

The Human Rights Law Centre believes that climate action is integral to ensuring we can live in a healthy planet now and for generations to come. A planet where all human beings can thrive.

We stand with global human rights leaders like UN’s Human Rights Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, who just last week called for global action on climate change:

“The world has never seen a threat to human rights of this scope. This is not a situation where any country, any institution, any policymaker can stand on the sidelines.” – UN Human Rights Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet.

The Human Rights Law Centre works to ensure that people have the power to speak out and hold governments and corporations to account if they fail to act on climate change by reducing harmful emissions, protecting the forests we need to breathe, the rivers we rely on for clean water and the oceans that sustain so much life on this planet.

Our work defends environmental organisations against repeated efforts by governments to harm their ability to advocate, take legal action and raise funds. Our work protects the rights of people to gather together and protest for climate action. In coming months we will also be undertaking new work to explore how the Human Rights Law Centre can make the greatest impact on the climate crisis in Australia.

This Friday 20 September, the Human Rights Law Centre team will take part in the Climate Strikes being led by incredible young advocates around the world who are stepping up to reclaim our future. We strongly encourage everyone who is able to join us on Friday and be a part of this inspiring movement.

You can find out more about the Climate Strikes taking place across Australia on September 20 here.

We can’t leave the heavy lifting to our children. Together, we must do all we can to inspire action in our communities and stop the harm caused by governments failing to ensure our planet is safe and healthy now and for future generations.

The team at the Human Rights Law Centre.

PS - You can find out more about what the human rights community is doing to address climate change by exploring these links: OHCHR & AHRC.

Photo credit: Julian Meehan (Creative Commons)