Filipino communities in the frontlines of the climate crisis are hoping that the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) will hold the world's biggest polluting companies accountable for human rights violations due to the impacts of climate change.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
The CHR is already preparing to release at the end of August its resolution on the world’s first investigation on climate-related human rights violations of fossil fuel companies.
The impending resolution is the outcome of an almost five-year-old petition filed by Filipino civil society organizations and individuals seeking responsibility from 47 fossil fuel companies, collectively called the "carbon majors," for their contribution to the climate crisis, which resulted in human rights violations.
They said the climate crisis has threatened Filipinos' lives and livelihoods and disrupted access to basic needs.
Greenpeace Philippines hopes that the resolution could establish new legal precedents in global climate litigation.
Climate justice campaigner Virginia Benosa-Llorin said petitioners are awaiting the release of CHR’s findings as it could also strengthen calls to ensure a green and just recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We seek no less than a groundbreaking decision that will give communities and people all over the world a strong rallying point to attain a better normal without fossil fuels, to demand ambitious climate action from governments, including regulations for the immediate and managed phaseout of fossil fuels, and to compel carbon majors to abandon their destructive business models involving the continuous production of fossil fuels," she said.
Veronica Cabe, coordinator for Nuclear-Free Bataan Movement and one of the petitioners, said they hope "that the CHR resolution will not just tell our stories, but will also encourage actions.
"We hope the decision will not just tackle moral responsibility. We want to see findings on legal liability and responsibility of carbon majors to stop them from continuing to violate not just the rights of people from coal-impacted communities, but the whole planet," Cabe added.
Typhoon "Yolanda" survivor and youth climate activist Marinel Ubaldo said that "the result of the petition will be the basis of future actions, especially among the youth."
"This is just the beginning. We have a long way to go and we should not stop. Ang laki ng magiging parte ng kabataan sa pagsusulong ng hustisyang pang-klima because it is our generation that will be affected in the near future. Kami ang makakaramdam ng climate impacts. (The youth will have a significant participation in the promotion of climate justice because it is our generation that will be affected in the near future. We are the ones who will feel the climate impacts)," she said.