Human Rights and Climate Change (LAWS70452)

This subject will provide a state-of-the-art, up-to-date overview of the phenomenon of climate change and how it affects the enjoyment of human rights. While all human rights issues will be addressed in the subject, an emphasis will be placed on climate displacement, an understanding of the dynamics of climate displacement, the countries that are now and will in future be most heavily affected and the legal and policy measures that will be required to ensure that all climate-displaced persons are afforded rights-based and viable solutions to their displacement. By approaching this challenging issue in this manner, the subject will provide students with an in-depth understanding of the legal issues involved, how they can be invoked and where work is under way today to protect human rights in the era of climate change in which we all now live. There will be an emphasis on several of the most affected countries, including Australia, Bangladesh, Kiribati, Maldives, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and the United States.

Principal topics include:

• Climate change and human rights: theory, perspectives and predictions
• The reality of the human rights impacts of climate change
• International law and climate change
• Housing, land and property rights dimensions of climate displacement
• Climate change solutions in practice: protecting the rights of communities threatened by climate change; role-play classroom exercises on resolving climate displacement
• Human rights mechanisms for addressing climate displacement
• Land acquisition as a primary solution to climate displacement
• Classroom debate on a new convention on human rights and climate change: good or bad idea?