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Thank you very much for the introduction of the it is really a pleasure to be with you all talking about these days.

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I am honoured by the presence of people here and here in the room will be discussing it today.

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That would be irreplaceable.

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Julian Hoffman I don't know how many of you have read the book, but he one of those places where the meaning of loss is real visceral.

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Now in the last year, I have been involved with such worlds across the globe as an English qualified barrister arguing in front of

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constitutional court and the national audience on the meaning of the word meaning and the meaning of the word life.

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In environmental degradation and climate change. Now, my journey has been humbling because of what I found and what those stories.

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Rivers, islands, territories and peoples protecting those were our world.

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Today I'm going to speak about the national courts organising climate change engagement and in particular about sort of Strait Islanders.

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They get a need to do things in connection to international law and domestic law.

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Number one, they don't exist in two parallel worlds.

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So you will see that we make some references to the.

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The point is that sometimes there is this tendency to see international law and domestic law as separate,

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but rather I would point out that there is an ongoing interaction and should be a constant interaction.

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We will be seeing that. Second, in connection to that,

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let's not forget that domestic judgements are severely needs for that examination of rules of law as per article 38 of the ICJ statute,

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which sets out where the sources is having made that point.

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I like to tell you, how am I going to spend this time now in my blog I devices and professions both my way of production.

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I want to contextualise stories by paid a second.

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We make some preliminary remarks which I think are important to do minds so that we go into the key aspects of the case.

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Probably seven. They are not all, all of them, but they are some of the key issues in the case.

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And finally, I will attempt to draw some conclusions. So convex.

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Can we go to the first lesson? The Torres Strait kids kind of like me explain particularly the legal issues there.

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If we don't go back a bit to the genesis of that and I can tell you that the ready for the best sort of authorities case is that Sheila,

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how about compare it all the United States of America.

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Now, this is a case that was brought before inmate population.

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All the names were individualised, so it was not the group.

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Litigating was rather a human rights case before the American system.

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This was filed before the Commission on Human Rights. Now pay attention to the year 2005.

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The case argue, among other things, that nowhere on Earth have global warming had been a more severe impact on the person that brought the case.

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Here is one of the first people to have raised climate change as a human rights issue.

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In fact, she was she was nominated for an award eventually to the Nobel Peace Prize and I believe to the right level award.

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Now the case what the case alleged was that global warming had already visibly formed altering land condition,

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making the weather of the Arctic increasingly unpredictable,

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with it being with elders who have long experience within the weather, reporting various changes, weather patterns and different areas of the ad.

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It also the now decreasing water levels in lakes and rivers and producing changes in the locational characteristics and health of animal species.

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Moreover, all the natural drinking water sources have become coarser, according to the complainant, and less drinkable.

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And they argue that this was the result of the combined effects of the decrease in the snowfall.

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Permafrost melt, the sudden early melt erosion, rising temperatures and changing winds.

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Now, this case was brought in an American declaration of the rights and abuses of men.

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It was needed at the outset.

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So the case didn't reach any procedural stages within the commission.

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It was seen by the commission before it was even raised.

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Now, I read this case very attentively.

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In fact, these were about the pages of extremely detailed submissions on the back of the campaign.

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Now they they felt 2005.

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Now you are interested. The analysis near the analysis of that,

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you're invited to read a chapter I recently published in a book by Bitcoin.com called Climate Change and Global Perspectives.

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Now, Sheila, when she was asked, What do you most want people to understand be the case, she said the following.

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Think about the interconnectedness of the. What happens in that kind of thing?

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It impacts the rest of the plans. The idea is the air conditioner for the world and it's breaking down.

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Now. I think that that it's quite a monetary statement.

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But I the case impacted me somehow and I analyse it for me with the idea that in the future,

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should there be a case I had to get it through, I ever had to represent a case of record and opportunity arise.

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I will tell you shortly. So if we go to the next place.

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Now, this is not an international law case, but this case and I highlight the year 2000 and is is the next case that really grab attention.

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I mean, it's a radical case in many ways. It failed originally.

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It went on appeal over London's belief income is a national universal Iaw.

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It is not. It is a state is it is a private party and it is ongoing.

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But it has it now go on the merits. And something I want to highlight concerning this case,

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we will do the next one is that here they are attempting to get liability of greenhouse gas emissions or harms arising in a different jurisdiction.

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So this is a. Truly transboundary case.

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So it is about an entity w e that is accused of a certain conduct.

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The impact of all the harm it is happening,

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it grew in the middle of them is where a glacier is melting and the claimant argues that it is melting because of the effect of climate change.

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R w e is a main actor.

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Now, how the courts in Germany were going to deal with that was a big question at the beginning, but they somehow have been doing it.

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I know there are two main questions that they want.

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They are going to determine whether a U.S.A. universe home is threatened by flooding and mudslides

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as a result of the recent increase in the volume of the glacial lake located nearby and how.

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rwe3 how gas emissions contributed to that risk.

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They have already the courts to rule, to assess evidence, which is already,

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procedurally speaking, a major step for any court to do in a case of this sort.

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Next. This. Now another precedent that's, I would say,

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a development that was likely to shape the thinking I heart towards this type of litigation is the Inter-American Court human rights

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advisory opinion developed and I'm sorry the decree which was delivered at the end of 2017 but published on the 7th of February 2018.

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Now, this is the key. This is not a conventional case.

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It is rather an advisory opinion, but it's an advisory opinion that basically constitutional rights,

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environmental law and human rights law for the Americas.

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Now the advisory panel recognised the right to a healthy environment as a fundamental right for the existence of humanity,

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something no other port had ever said. So by that point in time, and these are part of the right to life,

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the court part of that has environmental degradation and the adverse effects of climate change affect the affected enjoyment of human rights,

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including fundamentally the right to life. So this was a game changer, in my opinion.

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I got to add substantially about this particular advisory opinion.

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And so this is how we we mixed these. We get eventually to the of space.

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Let me tell you a couple of things about what has happened.

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In between. So so what changed from 2005 to 2003?

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And most importantly, what have changed further? When I indicated together with my clients and this was in 2019 and we filed the case.

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But what changed? There were two major changes. One was obviously the Paris agreement had been adopted.

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Because it didn't have an enforcement mechanism.

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Litigation was what's going to eventually start as a means to try to implement precise agreements.

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Now the second thing that happened was that my opinion then went to sleep.

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So these are the two, in my opinion, big events that took place and have made the difference between the in this case and the global.

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Now. Some remarks. It wasn't a Phillips soundscape as cold as being caught in being in England.

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The topic was climate change mitigation. And he advanced in particular,

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a position that it was unlikely that because of a specific U.S. set of human rights boards or that oversee the implementation of the people of Sweden,

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were unlikely to contribute in a material way to a broader response to climate change challenges.

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And he considered at a time that only a court of general jurisdiction such as the ICJ could possibly be with an issue like climate change.

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And it was obviously coming from an influential Abbotsford specialist in environmental law.

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More or less what the majority probably saw.

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However, I, I felt radically different.

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I in a conference in 2018.

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On a small estate I attended as a speaker.

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And I presented the following topic on making let's see data on endangered populations the national dispute resolution for Climate Change.

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Now, my key submission at the conference was that, contrary to the assumption I just told you about the possibilities of eviction,

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my view was that international human rights organs not only would be adjudicating climate change claims,

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but arguing that they were equipped to do so under international agreement like this.

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And I gave us example of the Human Rights Committee in particular, and its potential role in interpreting the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

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I explain what manner within the party that you are attending.

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There were some lawyers that when they spoke to me, they spoke to me shortly after in what became the first case,

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a textbook case on climate change before the Human Rights Committee.

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So the Torres Strait is a.

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Belt of sea, which lies between Papua New Guinea and the north of mainland Australia to the south.

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So it joins the out of policy to do with the core of the east and the region is part of the Australia, the Sea and Land Management.

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The strategy describes the unique environment of the region and the culture of the people who live in that space,

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as well as the history and nature of the occupation of this place.

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So the my clients leave absolutely enigmatic island boy or whatever.

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Now some points to bear in mind before I go in to what are the key issues in the case?

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At the time that the case was filed,

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I have worked at preparing the media that said there wasn't a bill pleased to do a human rights climate change case.

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I have studied the EMU case and I wouldn't say I cut the cord, but basically I try to understand why this case has not worked.

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What was wrong with a limitation, and where I had to strengthen a arguments in order to be successful in human rights laws.

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So we didn't have also the gender Supreme Court case that you may be aware it was decided later.

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Number two. This was a case of Territorian who is basically square.

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He was not a case. It was not a boundary case like the union case.

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This was a case where those who were alleging the calm leave in the storage to restore some of the things.

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What these. Three.

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This was a case that did not have permissible remedies.

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So you know that there's a number of the rules of civility.

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And one of them is the need for criminals.

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But in his particular case, there were simply no limits sorts.

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Now, that is quite a bold version. But after examining the domestic legal system in Australia,

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it was clear to me that there was simply not a diplomatic source in the state and within challenge that would be

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in a way admitting that there were simply no remedies in Australia for the actions of the nature we were alleging.

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So that means a lot because. We basically have agreed to believe the parties and the case would progress on to the merits.

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There were other types of disability issues raised by the state, but they were of a different nature, somehow mixing with the merits themselves.

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Now the analysis I'm going to believe are being made from a general public international law specialist.

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So I think it's quite important to remark, because what has been crucial in this litigation is not human rights specialism,

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in my opinion, properly understanding how different areas of the law we can find the International Law Clinic.

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So. In a landmark decision,

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the Human Rights Committee found that Australia failed to adequately protect Indigenous Strait Islanders against adverse impacts of climate change.

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What a breach of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

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This was in September, just in the 20 seconds. So this is a very fresh decision.

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Now,

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the complaint the complaint was brought by eight inhabitants of the tourism space in different islands and also some of them because of the children.

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Now they belong to the Indigenous minority group of islands in Australia and they need one of their improvements.

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Now they've announced that the sea level rise was causing flooding and they're

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also on the of those islands and high temperature and ocean acidification

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that there was a bleaching the reef there and the decline of seagrass beds and other nutritional and culturally important marine species for them.

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They told me that basically they couldn't tell the systems anymore.

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We are talking about people that whose lives were always punctuated by seasons.

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Now this is a very similar parallel with emus that were losing the ability to predict the weather.

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And they were losing their ability to move and do the things they did at certain points in time

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because they couldn't recognise the lines and they weren't recognised anymore in this instance.

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Now the Torres Strait Islanders argue that Australia has violated their rights under Article 67 and also 24 inches the rights of the child.

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Read the law and in conjunction with the pending. Well, now they've announced that the state party has paid for other basic measures, for example,

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to protect the old life way of life and culture against the effects of climate change, especially sea level rise,

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and for mitigation measures to reduce greenhouse emissions and promotion of fossil fuel extraction and use,

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which continues to affect the orphans and other islanders,

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endangering their livelihood precisely in the violation of the rights and advocacy of the kinds.

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Now, as I think was mentioned,

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this was the first record brought by Climate Water that were evidence of low light islands against the silver in the bay.

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And the residual had been down the ground, breaking several in several ways.

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I would say that the recognition that the Holocaust indigenous peoples are among those who are extremely vulnerable,

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recently experiencing severely disrupted climate change impacts.

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It's already had implications from the experience of it.

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So the first page recognises that actually climate change effects constitute a breach of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

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Now that's seven points that I want to make. The first is that the need, the failure to address climate change impacts cannot be attributable.

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Post-paid has been the spend that the committee rejected.

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They are the means by Australia that climate change was a global phenomenon and therefore it couldn't have responsibilities,

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was attributable to the actions of all the states combined.

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And you couldn't really individually have one to say to responsible.

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Now citing been what Mayor Alexander saw her debating climate law.

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And then finally thoughts on the absurdity of relying on human rights law to go after metres.

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Australia attempted to support its position, asserting that academic scholars have noted the pathways involving anthropogenic climate

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change and especially its impacts and implications of fuels on the human rights law,

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could not adequately address the depth and breadth of the causes and effects of climate change.

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So the committee rejects the substance of the statement.

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We found that the state can be held responsible for its own reasons, and in this particular case,

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the Committee observed that the formation provided by both parties indicates that the state party is and

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must be in recent decades among the countries in which large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions used.

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The committee also notes that the state side, the one side on work economy and human development indicators.

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So you also have not identified specific acts and omission that were attributable to the state.

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So this was not an abstract. They realised they were not relying on argument but rather staple lists of parts.

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Unknown issue.

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So they argue that those nations have already and will continue to impair their rights in ways that will worsen over time because of the latent,

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unpredictable nature of climate change. Now.

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They also argue that the protection of the right to life requires the state to review their

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energy policies and prevent the dangerous emissions of greenhouse the greenhouse gases.

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I'd say more about 50% of the rate. Now a second big topic on the case is the fact that binding invalidates and switches are now clearly

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the way to be relevant to the interpretation of human rights in the context of climate gentrification.

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So this is this was a race within the petition point that I raised, which basically was you don't interpret the treaty in isolation.

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I'm benefited from all the work of the commission, particularly in presentation,

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and asserted that you interpret the treaty within its normative environment.

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And this was the position that is quite significant because this is part of the Paris Agreement and.

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To play a role. In any event, the potential of a human was seen.

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We argue that it was relevant to the interpretation of the beliefs of white Australia,

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that he was not telling that you couldn't do that on the committee, and I decided that it was relevant to accept this.

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On the one hand, obviously, that international agreements are relevant for interpretation of human rights

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obligations under the ICC are the implications of anything other than they are,

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not just for the purposes of this application. I'm not claiming that red preach the divisive.

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Heard arguments, climate change, no mercy.

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One of the big issues in the case was whether the threat, the real threat was really going to happen in empathy years and not now.

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So the position of Australia was this is all future violations.

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This is not about violations of I have any now.

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But the authors argue that this actually contradicts the evidence that the state itself,

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in the state offices had in connection to what was going on in the state.

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The state has already violated its duty to avert devastating and future irreversible impacts on life protected by the cutting,

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including impacts caused by existing greenhouse gas emissions.

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Protective measures must be initiated today.

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Climate change is a slow onset process that a big body may violate its obligations before the worst impacts occur.

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This was the positive advance by my clients.

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So here I like to point out that there has to be a key distinction between a violation of a primary obligation and the impacts of that.

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Now, these impacts coming from, you know, traditional environmental law litigation.

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I've been acting for a company on a case on something.

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This is a court case example. I'm one of the clear thinkers, for example.

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I don't know what this means in certain circumstances. This being may happen at one point in time.

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The facts may come many years later, and this is something that the law even considers for limitations issues.

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So the same really applies when it comes to environmental harm, even nature.

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Here I would argue that it happens in the case of emission.

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Now this is based on was not perceived, I would say not always perceived so clearly by everybody.

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And I think it is a paramount importance in this type of litigation.

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Now. I mentioned that the State has already analysed the situation in this straits and it was quite cool

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because they themselves have a big order that says that there was an ongoing humanitarian crisis,

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human rights crisis because of the time, which is in fact the territory,

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because it is so sensitive to sea level rise that 20 centimetres of sea level rise would actually be helpful for these islands.

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Now. The author submitted a statement asserting that adverse effects of climate change have yet to be settled with.

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A third of those claims were based both on current violations and imminent violations.

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Among those severe impacts from climate change that already were already severe were plotting an invasion of villages,

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plotting an invasion or benefit from violence lost by erosion of the traditional plantations and three traditional gardens.

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Ocean acidification, reduced ability to practices, traditional culture and above all, to the next generation.

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They were expanding in size and strength.

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Some of the houses had been solely because of the sea level rise and they were the least endless of all the islands they can place.

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One of the authors described it vividly that he's island was changing shape and he was rotating clockwise.

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But on a sped up point. When I read these, I couldn't really quite figure out how this could be.

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But I visited the island like in in Germany, and when I was there, I understood how the sun is not stable and how, for example,

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there they have for 50 years it managed to stabilise the sun but literally also that it was it was going to change.

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Changing of the red was moving. So let's say.

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A different point. Politics, obligation to do diligence. This is also another.

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Oh, sorry. Let me just finish with what the media says here.

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So the committee said the authors presented in the communication information indicating the real predicament they have

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personally an actual experience owing to disrupt the climate event and its low onset processes set aside in a lawsuit.

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They also argue, in part, that those predicaments separately compromised their ability to maintain their livelihood, subsistence and culture.

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This was a very important, I say, folly by the community because in fact what?

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Acknowledge us. Who? The ability was also acknowledged and the things moving on to the next Boeing focuses on big agents and dividends.

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Another key aspect of this is based on the plan to implement positive obligations.

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The state argued that specific obligations under the covenant do not require maximum possible resources nor high possible ambition.

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But notes such an unprecedented would not only place an impossible burden on state,

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but would also be displaced reasonable policy choices made in good faith states.

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And they are set to for some challenges that impact on the enjoyment of human rights

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under the covenant and decide how to distribute limited resources to address them.

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And he'd also argue that it would be inappropriate and unfounded for the committee to

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interpret the code in such a way as now to remain the control and difficult policy decisions

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of a democratically elected government that inherently compromises trade offs and the

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allocation of resources across a range of challenges to the fulfilment of human rights.

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The urge the Commission to adopt an unduly broad interpretation of a political obligation.

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Now in the concurring opinion of member Jp Berry.

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He stated the following The states are under a positive obligation to take all appropriate measures to ensure the protection of human life.

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In this context,

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the due diligence standard required the state to set the national climate mitigation targets at the level of the highest possible ambition and to

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pursue effective domestic mitigation measures with the aim of perceiving those targets when a state is found not to have completed the commitments.

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Finally, the grounds for this question for the complainants.

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While the big concern could be required to step up efforts and prevent similar violations in the future.

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He actually said something that I find Cousteau and he wants that since it is thermostatic accumulation of CO2 and other GHG that over time

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he described global warming and climate change if due diligence when taking mitigation and adaptation action based on the best science.

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This is an individual responsibility of the state relative to the risk of the state,

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and its capacity to address is a higher standard of due diligence applied in respect of those are

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faced with significant total with significant total emissions very high for capita emissions.

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Whether these are parts or conservation, given the greater burden that their emissions play on the global planet.

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So while the majority of people refer to these points, specifically the authors of uncompetitive abatement,

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the highest court in Australia had ruled that the state do not own a duty of care for failing to

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regulate environmental harm was one of the reasons why the committee found the case of New Zealand.

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So in other words, the needs and obligations of the citizens, the ease of obligation, of duty, of care.

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And you could infer that from from the point that the point was not available to them the maximum allowable in the national system.

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Look, Simon. An additional point.

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Individual people's rights and climate change is a major win for Indigenous peoples.

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Considering that the Human Rights Committee has not been extremely good, to say the least.

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This is one of the most important cases the committee has produced on slides that indicate that indigenous people's rights and as you can see,

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vindicates them even from similar claims in other systems like the one in the commission I just saw.

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So if you go. And so on.

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Article 17, which is the protection column, was acknowledged that the home of one of the orphans,

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for example, was rolled by flooding in 2010 and that they also depended on fish.

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So this is his most important is how home is also because school is not.

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How would you mean in this case was broader. Was was was the idea was was where you are a body and what you consider you are unfit for land.

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So they also depended on fish made them resources love crops please for the

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livelihoods depend on the help of the surrounding ecosystems for their own.

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For their own would be. It is what the Committee acknowledge and consider.

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The aforementioned elements contribute components of the traditional indigenous way of life of the authors.

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We enjoy a better relationship with the territory and that these elements can be considered to fall under Article 17 of the Covenant.

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I really highlight these because as you can see, it is not just territorial land.

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Territorial waters are also entered into this analysis and I think this is going to be and I would come back to my conclusion,

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quite crucial because they have already been accepted where all these impacts like ocean

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acidification impacting on the species that you could find a certain point in time.

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So all of these could potentially be extremely useful for a tribunal such as it will be, for example,

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assessing potentially and, you know, a complaint or also an advisor opinion on on climate change on those.

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So the committee made a number of important considerations concerning Article 27.

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The. They really decided to paper over the indigenous peoples.

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So to maintain the ability to believe the traditional ways and to submit to the children

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of future generations that culture and occupations and use of land and sea resources,

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and that this all disclosed a violation of the state's positive obligation to protect the rights of the minority culture.

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So here we have seen, again, the point, the positive obligation, and again,

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the sign up here is due diligence on why they fell on this sustainable of care,

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because their own agencies had already planned that there was going to be a human rights presence in the tourism space, and yet they did nothing.

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And the place was considered as part of.

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The roll call in a way so and so he was not at all needing help.

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So this really shows you that to be within the legal framework you are probably.

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So DeLay would make you already be accountable or be liable for moving on from that.

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Why collide with this is that this is a very was a very key submission in the

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case the committee decided we would call in general number six where adequate

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sample is held that the obligation for the parties to respect and ensure the right

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to life extend reasonably foreseeable fears of a life threatening situation.

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That kind of resulting loss of life would be the knowledge that back in 2008 or then a number of things.

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And they also included that that those threats may include adverse climate change impacts.

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But having said all of that,

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they unconvincingly avoided the inherent contradiction of finding a violation of the sentence seven being in this case, but not a article thing.

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Because how can indigenous people possibly have a life with dignity when the culture accepted by the community and the

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existence of the group is threatened by a plot by climate change to the extent described by the authors in the case?

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So this really gave rise to a number of separate opinions.

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Committee member Massa found that there had been a violation of five six and if better than a third

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party starts with an obligation to prevent a foreseeable loss of life for the bulk of climate change,

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I'm wondering what possible means. But it is quite important to.

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Now the joint opinion by committee members. I can see a frown on the part of the dissenting pound about the right to life,

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and b critically noted using the real unforeseeable foreseeable responder the majority the required requires adverse events.

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Now this is wrong. And this is the joint the joint the dissenting committee members didn't agree that they said

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that the majority was required adverse impact to demonstrate an Article six violation.

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But they they found wrong that it was wrong. Now, in my view,

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the joint opinion is blind and the majority view reflects a confusion between obligations

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under Article six and the reach and the impacts of the violation of the primary obligations.

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But most importantly. It is a lack of understanding of.

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The meaning of life, though they were persuaded that the.

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The environments that were sustaining the lives of all these people on the island were collapsing.

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And yet. They were big.

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They wanted to see it. Look what they couldn't control.

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It were real, the war imminent and the war possibility in the correct manner.

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As the Supreme Court in the Netherlands case.

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And I'm going to go to that very quickly. When I grew up, I'll. Now the.

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One of the things that I would highlight here is that what is foreseeable is also not what is imminent,

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is not doing is not about time, but about ten or 15 years of the island is no longer there.

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The issue of imminence is about how real you can see how the risk it is for the people that are arguing that impacts.

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It is not a simple reality knowing it's a notion of reality as a notion of how direct that threat is is against.

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And in this particular case, everything has been demonstrated in terms of how real this was at the moment that that became real.

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The duty to act diligently feels comfortable.

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The joint opinion added While we agree that the state party is not solely responsible for climate change.

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The main question before the committee is significantly narrower Has the state party violated the covenant by failing

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to implement adaptation and mitigation measures to combat adverse climate change impacts within its territory?

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Responding to the offers. The majority opinion relies on project initiated by a state since 2013, with the state as one of them was sued.

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A year later, they wanted to try to put together some money for seawalls and in a way hoping it was good that they think so,

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but in a way that they were trying to see what we are already doing, where we have to do.

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Now the majority opinion relies on the project. While these measures had been climate change resilience.

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The majority that is not sufficient sufficiently consider the violations that had already occurred at the time of filing this communication.

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That is the failure to repeat commitments obligations under Article six.

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Nicole Kidman. And this is the last point I'm making for.

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In practical terms, however, it didn't matter whether we got there via the gate or the right, like by the gate.

354
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A sense the obligations of conservation measures is a legal consequence of the findings, I would argue.

355
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And the reason for that is because the immediate steps towards the island being in the complaint are entitled to full reparation.

356
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The meaning of what full reparation intend is defined by international law.

357
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The committee referred to compensation, which is a precedent now with the notion of loss and damage.

358
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This is connected to the fact that the state knew. So this is very important knowledge.

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Now this board also at the committee,

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a crucially a paper that they find is also under an obligation to take steps to prevent similar violations in the future.

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Now, these people, I would argue, within the scope of warranty, of no repetition.

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And it can only be achieved by information measures because it doesn't matter

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how well you do it if the emissions are continuing in the manner they are.

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So the committee gave I would say that it is an important legal consequence arising from the findings of the committee,

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which now has to be implemented. The component of being able to points out that these as well.

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You read that, you can see that. He also points out that these duties somehow implicit in the decision of the majority.

367
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Now, the committee gave the report on the measures taken to implement this decision, which is that when this was notified, what?

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Now I want to make perhaps some some final conclusion or be made on the way forward where things that need to be the big achievement,

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but they're also things that need to be clarified. So let me first talk about the issue of imminence.

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So this has to be correct.

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The right to life is the message in the decision, and this has to be addressed is possible that is required in security for generals.

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And maybe a court that has a bench with more generals may be able to engage in a better position.

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But on the other hand, you had the gender Supreme Court case where, you know, these are domestic court judges that never nevertheless got it right.

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Why? Because it is quoting about.

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About that position that their immediate was not prepared to imminence in the sense that the risk must materialise within a short period of time,

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but rather that the risk in question is directly questioning the presence of both the protection to the European Court of Human Rights,

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also regarding risks that may only materialise in the longer term.

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And this was a position we advance the joint and separate opinion.

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So it the majority didn't.

380
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But sometimes when you have so many disagreements with a majority, when you have the because you know there's an issue there,

381
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perhaps they have to be look again for the future in control cases.

382
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Now, on the issue of due diligence, again, I think that this is going to be it's quite an important sign that it is already becoming clearer.

383
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This case is contributing to that. The Heathrow expansion case, for example, in the UK Supreme Court decision in that case, I submit.

384
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Ms. So also he's here.

385
00:47:08,470 --> 00:47:16,750
It's quite clear in this case that it's on obligations, planning obligations if they thought it's on their own inhabitants.

386
00:47:17,050 --> 00:47:22,090
I mean, in the Heathrow case, somehow the UK just kind of said, you know, it's not unincorporated.

387
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We've been so talking about the place of women and so on.

388
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So in a way, kind of thinking this is not important for UK.

389
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Guidance. But really there is an obligation, human rights connected on emissions toward your own population anyways.

390
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So it's not that it was a boundary issue, but it's also an issue that will affect your own people.

391
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And this has to be over. There it is. We did not in the UK look at the by the women doesn't really entail any obligation of resort.

392
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Of course not. But now we have seen that what impelled is an obligation and obligation to our

393
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best efforts of due diligence and to do that with the best available science.

394
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So definitely this is going to be a point that will continue being referred to in cases.

395
00:48:17,490 --> 00:48:22,290
And now we can see how relevant this is. This is for human rights obligations.

396
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Obligated to provide remedy. Now it's clear that the same obligation in this country to climate change.

397
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So domestic systems should run if they don't have to do so unless they want to be sued in the national systems.

398
00:48:40,450 --> 00:48:45,310
Positive obligation to protect some. Yes, you can be sued for not following that approach.

399
00:48:46,540 --> 00:48:57,220
Criticisms. A couple of them just closed. This case took about four years to litigate from 2019 to do with long period of time.

400
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I think the procedurally speaking system should deal with these emergency in a different manner.

401
00:49:04,780 --> 00:49:11,920
I think that the European Court has taken a better approach in human rights to date in actually prioritising this type of cases,

402
00:49:12,160 --> 00:49:19,399
and I feel that is the correct approach. Another point that they probably didn't get right.

403
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And I think that it needs to be corrected because these two right leaning heads into the band,

404
00:49:23,690 --> 00:49:28,970
and that's quite crucial to understand how the dynamics of life play in a case like this one.

405
00:49:29,540 --> 00:49:36,960
And the Human Rights Committee. You didn't actually see that interdependence and the connections between two lives.

406
00:49:37,340 --> 00:49:45,020
You know, and like point, I'm worried that a separate analysis which really goes contrary to,

407
00:49:45,350 --> 00:49:50,590
you know, the most basic, in my view, my position when it comes to the rights.

408
00:49:53,250 --> 00:50:01,680
So finally, I'd say that this case potentially can be very helpful for you than the other cases.

409
00:50:03,330 --> 00:50:09,630
And I say not only for territorial jurisdiction cases that are currently before the European Court of Human Rights,

410
00:50:09,900 --> 00:50:13,170
but I say that possibly before the ICJ,

411
00:50:13,170 --> 00:50:14,050
in my opinion,

412
00:50:14,100 --> 00:50:23,550
the people in the pipeline clearly also likely to be very important in a potential case because for the reasons that I mentioned briefly.

413
00:50:24,750 --> 00:50:32,760
So we have we have a number of reasons to be hopeful of this bond as it has been discussed, perhaps not, you know,

414
00:50:32,860 --> 00:50:41,010
the way that I consider this applied, but certainly providing an amazing way for the Torres Strait Islanders.

415
00:50:41,220 --> 00:50:48,750
And I like to finish with a quote from them. And if I may, I am I still in time to do that?

416
00:50:49,080 --> 00:50:53,220
So this is this is key. But I and he said.

417
00:50:54,460 --> 00:51:01,120
But then something really important to our culture because they tell us how we live and what we call different times.

418
00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:09,009
They lead to the four winds that we have on the island becomes at different times of year the queen windscreen before the species for hunting,

419
00:51:09,010 --> 00:51:12,430
fishing, harvesting. They are like the patterns that shape life.

420
00:51:13,600 --> 00:51:18,249
We as people are so connected to everything around us. The island is what make us.

421
00:51:18,250 --> 00:51:22,329
It keeps us our identity. We know everything about environmental.

422
00:51:22,330 --> 00:51:28,610
This island, the land of sea, the plants, the weeds, the stars, the seasons, the island make us who we are.

423
00:51:28,810 --> 00:51:32,230
Our whole life comes from the island and the nature here.

424
00:51:32,440 --> 00:51:38,410
Environment. It is a spiritual connection. We know how to have the beach from this island right here.

425
00:51:38,770 --> 00:51:43,180
We get that from generations of knowledge that has been passed down to us.

426
00:51:43,390 --> 00:51:51,640
I know very every species of plant animal on this island, the way the vegetation changes, what to harvest at different times of the year.

427
00:51:51,850 --> 00:52:03,540
Now you cannot predict the seasons. This is really what outraged me when I when I read these statements and if I go to Singapore, not just be.

428
00:52:05,110 --> 00:52:09,130
Our ancient culture, one of the oldest living causes in the world is threatened.

429
00:52:09,400 --> 00:52:15,790
Historically, we are sort of Strait Islanders have had our land and resources taken and our sacred sites.

430
00:52:15,900 --> 00:52:20,290
So I feel as if we are neglected and our sacred sites threatened.

431
00:52:20,290 --> 00:52:24,490
Again, I would probably be alive to see my children not having anything.

432
00:52:24,670 --> 00:52:29,740
When they are adults, they will not have anything for the children who will be living on another man's land.

433
00:52:30,250 --> 00:52:34,330
That is with my identity. They must seek. Legal identity will die.

434
00:52:34,600 --> 00:52:39,940
I know I love to teach my children, but I cannot teach my children about that inheritance when I'm not in men's land.

435
00:52:40,210 --> 00:52:43,450
We won't have the sacredness and the power of our culture.

436
00:52:44,020 --> 00:52:49,240
Our land is a stream connecting us to a culture. It ties us to who we are.

437
00:52:49,360 --> 00:52:54,630
If we were to have to move, we would be like helium balloons disconnected from our culture.

438
00:52:54,640 --> 00:52:58,360
Our culture would become extinct. We are dying ways of thinking.

439
00:52:59,260 --> 00:53:01,900
This was the way they put their stories forward.

440
00:53:02,800 --> 00:53:08,980
And this case has vindicated then were rights actually need the protection of the state and we are going to

441
00:53:08,980 --> 00:53:18,860
obviously blow it up most ensure these these decision which in a way have already been put in the state point.

442
00:53:19,120 --> 00:53:26,350
It's that nearly a year after this case was filed. So the efforts of these, in a way, been isolated.

443
00:53:26,410 --> 00:53:29,450
You have seen the road and I have showed you the road.

444
00:53:30,100 --> 00:53:35,379
It took a lot of processing and thinking already from the moment when the means failed.

445
00:53:35,380 --> 00:53:42,370
And I want to find out why did the means failed. I want to dedicate the work I did on this case to them.

446
00:53:42,370 --> 00:53:47,890
And it was a sheila which perhaps will not succeed on the particular case,

447
00:53:48,790 --> 00:53:53,350
but then which really were telling us that very much what was going to happen.

448
00:53:53,890 --> 00:54:00,220
And I would say that I'd like you to go. All of you in this room, I'm going to tell you really what imminence means,

449
00:54:00,580 --> 00:54:06,310
because any any effects is not going to be like a slow is going to be abrupt.

450
00:54:06,670 --> 00:54:15,610
And in a way, we are already perceiving that somehow. So this is not just in a case and it's not just an academic exercise.

451
00:54:16,330 --> 00:54:22,600
This is unfortunately crucial for the survival of the world and our own survival.

452
00:54:22,810 --> 00:54:23,560
Thank you very much.