The Right to be Cold

Carl Soderbergh

I recently chaired a tribunal called “Humanity on Trial” in Stockholm, Sweden. The tribunal focussed on the human impact of climate change and was meant to be taking place in the middle of this century. It looked back on what the world knew as states gathered for the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark at the end of 2009. Supposing that the delegations were unable to agree on a binding agreement, the tribunal posed the question why so little was done. Indeed, the Swedish press were full of reports the day before that the Danish hosts had finally admitted that the prospects are now slim of achieving a binding successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, at least at Copenhagen.

The panel was composed of human rights and environmental experts from Sweden and other countries, and the eight witnesses were called from some of the most exposed populations of the planet, including Inuit in Norway, the indigenous peoples of Latin America and forest-dwellers in India. As a reminder of the urgency of the topic, groups of children came on to the stage and grabbed the microphones to ask the grown-ups, “You knew – why didn’t you do anything!?!” And to set the scene further, the sun rose as the tribunal progressed, ending up as a searing orb hanging above our heads.

A week or so after the tribunal, the stories of the witnesses remain with me. Sheila Watt-Cloutier, former chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, was the first witness and is justly renowned for having submitted the first complaint regarding climate change and human rights to an international body. The complaint was lodged by her and 62 other Inuit elders with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2005. Sadly, the Commission did not rule on the substance of the complaint, which identified the United States as the respondent. But it did hold a ground-breaking hearing on the matter.

Watt-Cloutier painted in stark terms what is (or rather was – if we follow the tribunal’s fictional timeframe of taking place mid-century) happening to the Inuit because of climate change. Coastal erosion is causing homes to fall into the sea. Deep fissures have opened up in the permafrost, dividing communities and making hunting grounds less accessible. Even more worrying is that the pack-ice is thinning out and coming later, making the traditional means of transport – dog-sledding – ever more precarious. Given that the ice and snow are so vital, Watt-Cloutier said that the issue of climate change had to do with their “right to be cold.”

Watt-Cloutier described how the Inuit suffer “a sense of loss of control over our lives.” Most particularly, the age-old ways of hunting allow each generation to transmit “the wisdom of the land” to their children. Now, the elders are finding it difficult to instil their children with the values and beliefs of their people. Inuit communities have seen rising alcoholism and an increase in the suicide rate as traditional roles are being undermined.

The petition to the Inter-American Commission was submitted because the Inuit did not “want to go down as a footnote in history.” Nor did they want to be perceived as “powerless victims.” When asked how states had responded, Watt-Cloutier replied that US representatives had made arguments based on economic efficiency: it costs too much to stop the damage.

For Watt-Cloutier, however, the responsibility is clear. The industrialised countries and urban populations in particular have lost their connection to the natural world, and we should be looking to minorities, indigenous peoples and other populations who retain the necessary knowledge in order to regain that balance. Indeed, Watt-Cloutier looked upon the petition as the Inuit peoples’ “gift”, intended to raise awareness of this need.

Shankar Gopalakrishnan, an Indian forest-dwellers’ rights activist, pointed out that the rainy season did not come in 2009. Forest-dwellers lead a particularly vulnerable existence, according to Gopalakrishnan, since their environment has already been affected by the depredations of private corporations which have been grabbing forested areas and using the timber to produce commodities. Thus, the forest communities of India face both a deprival of resources as well as a loss of control over their own lives. Gopalakrishnan urged that the forests of India and elsewhere be saved as a way to combat the effects of climate change.

During the break, a member of the audience approached me to comment on the proceedings. Wisely, he noted that perhaps the witnesses from affected populations should have been sitting on the panel and the members of the tribunal, who came from industrialised countries, should have been asked to testify.

Alivio Aruquipa Lazo lives in a village in the Bolivian Andes, where the indigenous population depends on the Mururata glacier for their water. He was elected by the village to come and speak at the tribunal. In 2009, the glacier is already providing too little water, and the village foresees that they will have to move in order to survive. Lazo described how their way of life focuses on the glacier – the village gives offerings to it. If they are displaced, the village’s beliefs and traditions and, indeed, their language risk disappearing.

Sultana Begum, a women’s rights activist in the Sundarbans of Bangladesh, described the particular gender aspect of the impact of natural disasters and climate change. Women are often not informed when floods occur and stay behind to care for their children, thus being at an ever-greater risk of being swept away. Moreover, women are not included when communities discuss flood prevention strategies. Her testimony echoed the information MRG had received from Dalit women in India, following the Tsunami of 2004.

After these and the other testimonies, the panel gathered to deliberate. What was our decision? While we certainly recognised the human rights dimension to climate change, we faced a dilemma as international law is weak when it comes to legal responsibility across borders. Moreover, we felt that all of us – most especially those of us who belong to majority communities in industrialised countries – stood accused. Ultimately, we had to leave it to the audience to decide.

For more details, please see http://humanityontrial.wordpress.com/

Part 2 of 2: Apparently all Africans originate from Ethiopia – new discovery at MRG media training

Read Part 1: Team blogging – part of the media training in sunny Kampala

Farah Mihlar

We are championing on. I am still typing away as the 18 participants attending MRG’s Kampala media training add their comments to a blog we are attempting to write jointly. All of the activists represented at this training work with minority communities in some of the harshest political and socio-economic climates. They are almost always excluded and often discriminated against.

‘The Batwa are the first people in the Congo but the last in getting resources from the government,’ says Tuteene, who works with Batwa ‘pygmies’ in north Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Tuteene wears the most colourful suits (today he is in orange) and has helped brighten up each of our sessions. The activists working with Batwa, in DRC and Uganda, have explained through the course of the training, how this community is marginalized and discriminated against. They face high levels of poverty and illiteracy and are stigmatized in society because of their specific physical characteristics, Peninah, explains. Peninah like Timothy also works with Batwa in Uganda.

‘The drought is so alarming and exceptional, it is having adverse effects on the livelihood of people and is causing starvation,’ Albert says. Many of the pastoralist activists have referred to the manner in which these groups of cow herders are struggling because of the prolonged drought and also due to the effects of climate change.

Mitiku, who works with pastoralists in Ethiopia highlights some of the challenges the participants may face in advocating their problems. ‘Even though we got this technical knowledge, it will be very hard and challenging to do advocacy and lobbying on the issues affecting our community,’ he says.

Whilst the training was specifically on how to use the media to promote issues affecting different communities, the bringing together of various different people, from different communities, helped to sensitise all of us, allowing the group to understand problems faced by minorities all across Africa. Many of the participants, mainly through the cultural evening, made new discoveries.

Apparently all Africans originate from Ethiopia. ‘How come no one knew this?’ I ask. ‘Some of us learnt it for the first time,’ says Joanna. I must clarify: this did not transpire based on any proper research. It just became apparent, as each activist referred to their origins that almost all of the communities represented at the training had originated from Ethiopia.

‘I didn’t know that Iteso are sons of the Karamojong,’ says Timothy. This is in reference to Albert’s historical portrayal of how the people of Karamoja and Teso came into being. The Teso, according to Albert, are a break-away group of the same set of pastoralists who moved to Karamoja. Both communities are in conflict over land and other resources in the region. ‘I think we just became stubborn and went away with the cows and never went back,’ laughs Ben, who is from Teso.

Samuel presents at a mock press conference

Samuel, who works with a Ugandan pastoralist community, says he was surprised to learn the different types of pet-names Banyoro people give each other. Drake, who is from Uganda’s Banyoro tribe, revealed to us how each person in the community has a pet-name, in addition to their real name. He has kindly named me Amooti, meaning flower (I really am not one). All of us picked up a few different ways to greet each other, the most popular was how the Karamojong do it.

‘Maata Angaatuk’ (I greet you in the name of cows, goats and all livestock), shouts Albert.

‘Maata’ we reply, in unison.

The participants also learnt about their own and others hidden talents. Samuel, for instance, discovered he is an exceptional cameraman, while Drake can easily start a career as a narrator (we hope he doesn’t give up his work with pastoralists).

Michael, the newfound reporter who apparently works for MRG TV (we don’t really have one, it was just a part of the video activity), says, team-building was good in the way we tapped into people’s professional skills. All of us had different skills. Penninah was very confident in responding to questions in the interviews and Albert was good in creating captions.

One of the most unique aspects of this training was that, whilst the entire team worked intensely for long hours throughout the day, no one was short of energy to party through the night. As we shift our focus to how much fun the group had, Sandra is unanimously asked to comment. Sandra is a local and took on a leadership role in pointing the rest of the participants to the ‘must visit’ night venues in Kampala. ‘This was not enough fun for me,’ she says laughingly… ‘Especially when we went out to my favourite hangout and the guys slept,’ she adds. This did happen. On the second evening, when we went out to a fancy bar (Sandra’s favourite), the girls all ganged up and chatted and the men looked bored to death. Some did go off to sleep. ‘It is not a human rights violation to sleep,’ quips Tuteene (no giving away who fell asleep!).

According to Albert on most nights they had so much fun they had to take a vote to decide the time to leave. I have to confess that I didn’t have enough energy to keep up with the continuous partying so wasn’t a part of these exceptionally fun nights. Faith, our Zimbabwean participant, who has unlimited energy to party, says the training was always ‘happening,’ but she insists the term has to be pronounced with a Nigerian accent (hapnin) to give it added kick.

Despite the fun, the participants re-emphasise how important the training has been for them. Drake sums up for us, ‘We have been having a barrier on how we can get our issues through to the international community, we buried our head in trying to find an answer. But this training has helped us to get an idea of how we can do this.’

Contributors

• Agnes Ingwu, Abanbeke Development Association, Obudu City – Nigeria.
• Albert Lokoru, Karamoja Agro-Pastoral Development Programme (KADP), Karamoja – Uganda.
• Drake Nyamugabwa, Masindi Pastoralist Group, Masindi – Uganda.
• Faith Nzilani Musinga, Centre of Minority Rights and Development, Harare – Zimbabwe.
• Mohamed Matovu, MRG Regional Information Officer, Kampala – Uganda.
• Mohamed Mukhtar, Media and Rights Somaliland, Hargeisa – Somaliland.
• Mitiku Tiksa, SOS Sahel Ethiopia, Addis Ababa – Ethiopia.
• Mugabe Herbat Joram, Pastoralist Women to Break Cultural Chains, Kiboga District – Uganda.
• Niwagaba Joan, Mbarara Development Agency, Mbarara – Uganda.
• Omunga Benjamin, Katakwi Urafiki Foundation, Katakwi District – Uganda.
• Peninah Zaninka, United Organisation for Batwa Development, Kampala – Uganda. Rahel Negussie, Pastoralist Forum Ethiopia, Addis Ababa – Ethiopia.
• Sandra Nassali, UgaBYTES Initiatives, Kabalagala – Uganda. Samuel Kaweesi, Nakasongora Pastoralists Association, Nakasongora – Uganda.
• Tuteene Kusimweray, Action pour la Promotion des Droits de Minorites Autochtones en Afrique Centrale, Bukavu – D.R.C. Thomas Kiptiony Chepsoi, Endorois Welfare Council, Nakuru Town – Kenya.
• Mpalanyi Michael, Uganda Land Alliance, Kampala District – Uganda.

Making the case for indigenous peoples to be part of climate change solutions

MRG’s Media Officer, Farah Mihlar, gets to grips with how climate change is affecting indigenous communities at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Co-incidentally the focus of the morning TV news in New York was also on the environment. It was amazing how the debate on television news in a capital city (on the east coast) was simplified into entertaining little quizzes on whether you should do your dishes by machine or hand?! I would have thought that the world’s biggest polluter had moved beyond this level of discussion – there were no experts, there was no analysis, there weren’t even statistics - so a comfortable avoidance of where US households stand with their carbon foot print.

But inside the UN the debate was very different. At the Indigenous Peoples Forum I was attending, the communities contributing the least to pollution were explaining how they were suffering the most.

The Inuit and Sami communities who live in the Arctic across Alaska and Greenland and Scandinavia are severely affected by melting ice caps. Patricia Cochran of the Inuit Circumpolar Council explains to me that there have been cases where peoples and villages have simply vanished as a resulting of the melting snow. Sami reindeer herders speak of how their everyday lives are affected as warmer winters prevent the reindeer climbing to the top of the mountains to find their food.

Indigenous activist from Siberia (left) talking to
pastoralists from Kenya

Further down in Ethiopia and Kenya pastoralist communities are finding the desserts hotter as a result of longer and more persistent droughts (I have pledged to stop complaining about the hot summers in Europe). They are dependent on their livestock, much of which is being lost to the drought together with people who die of the heat and starvation. The consequences are far reaching because in some cases men and specially women face exploitation as they migrate to cities and struggle to make a living.

In the pacific indigenous communities explain how the underwater sea life is for them similar to the forests that the South American Amazon dwellers are fighting to protect. For pacific tribes they are dependent on the fish and other sea-creatures who are affected by the rising water temperature that in turn is affecting the entire eco-system.

Every community represented at the UN from all regions of the world had their own unique story of how climate change was affecting them. Climate change for many years has been seen as a strictly environmental issue though later accepted as also a developmental issue. It is only now being recognized as a human rights issue but looking at it under a human rights lens is fairly new territory for many and that was clear even at the UN forum.

But for the indigenous communities it is less relevant how the debate is framed. For them the stark reality is that their communities are facing (or in some cases have already faced) a threat to life, development, self-determination, culture, etc. In some cases there is even a fear that entire communities may become extinct or at the least communities will lose fundamental aspects of their language, culture and literature that are so closely linked to nature.

This I think was the main point of emphasis at the forum – the exceptional, close relationship indigenous peoples have with the environment. Their dead live on in the soil, their Gods are in the waterfalls and the rivers, their spirits are in the wind. Their elders can interpret nature and have a way of communicating with the environment and although climate change challenges some aspects of this traditional knowledge these communities argue that their knowledgebase is diverse and they have historical experience of adaptation.

Hence the argument goes like this - because Indigenous peoples are the worst affected by climate change yet have the closest relationship to nature any solution on climate change should include them.

Getting world leaders grappling with issues of carbon footprints and CO2 emissions to also recognize this human cost is going to be tough one.

Another world inside the UN

MRG’s Media Officer Farah Mihlar is learning about indigenous communities at the UN in New York

Aaahhh New York!!

There is just something about the Big Apple that makes it impossible to resist a trip here even if it comes at the busiest of times. It’s difficult to pin down exactly what it is about New York – something to do with the buzz, the vibrancy, the colour, the anonymity, the attitude, the art, culture, knowledge on offer – all of which makes it special even to someone who does not easily appreciate western capitalist culture and symbolism!

But this is not about New York (I eventually did wake up to the fact that I was not on paid holiday). I am here to attend the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFI) focusing this year on the impact of climate change on indigenous peoples. Following the release of a recent publication on climate change and minorities, MRG is looking to expand its work on how the scourge of our times affects minority and indigenous communities. We have chosen this issue as one of our online campaigns for this year and the UN forum, which brings together UN member states, experts and indigenous community representatives, could not be missed.

My mission: keep my antennas up, put on my journalist cap (never succeeded in getting rid of that), network but most importantly understand the issues, figure out what the communities want so we at MRG can better represent them.

Based on my experiences with other UN mechanisms such as the Human Rights Council (HRC) I was ready for an element of chaos, prepared for the politics, the diplomacy, the manoeuvring that often stains the work of the UN. But I was quite pleasantly surprised.

The first taste of what was to come was at the registration queue at the entrance to the UN headquarters in New York. Men and women in crisp suits were replaced by people wearing the most unusual, colourful shirts, dresses, sarongs, feathered hats, turbans and shawls woven, as they explain, in centuries of history and tradition. They were accessorized with beaded chains, metal medallions, feathers, flowers all heavily symbolic – as a young reindeer herder from the Sami community in Finland explains the shape of the button in their belts go as far as to indicate if they are married or not.

Two young Sami reindeer herders discuss climate change

In the main conference room the usual delegate boards naming member states are replaced by scribbled boards titled Batwa, Sami, rainforest people, Elmolo… hundreds and hundreds of different indigenous peoples from across the world proudly representing their status as the original inhabiters of the world.

The uniqueness of the UNPFI was stark. This is not a forum where states dominate with diplomats at the edge of their seats waiting to attack a country or defend their own. In fact this is forum where state parties are confined to one corner of the room and a majority of the delegates pay no respect to strictly defined borders. They often represent nations unrecognized as states and their communities spread across regions and countries. This is a forum where proceedings start not with acknowledgement to the UN or to the host country but by giving thanks to the Onondaga people, native Americans who were the original inhabitants of the land the UN is situated on (sorry, no thanks to George W Bush – not even for the visas). Elders, who are revered and respected in indigenous communities bless the forum and open the session by giving thanks to mother earth, the waterfalls and rivers, the thunder that brings rain, the sun and the air.

This is an event where the superpowers have no place and the heroes are those who defy the mainstream. Bolivia’s new Indigenous President Evo Morales, got a thundering applause and long standing ovation as he took up contentious issues of historic injustice to indigenous people and recommended a shift away from capitalist developmental models. It is a forum that not just introduces one to a whole different world but to vastly different world views – many issues that make our headlines have little relevance here – these are people that subscribe to entirely different belief systems (Samuel Huntington may want to rewrite ‘Clash of civilizations’ after a day of being here). Here you can not accuse ‘Americans’ of invading Iraq. Americans they will say are confined to reserves and national parks and had no role in invading Iraq.

For me it has been one of the most humbling and exciting learning. Throughout my work in human rights, coming from a country affected by conflict myself, I have grappled with issues of ethnicity and religion in identity formation and issues of nationhood. But this is another paradigm. The usual human rights jargon of oppression and injustice take on entirely different dimension.

I feel like making a run to a book store but I realize few history books and atlases will be accurate. The story is with the people themselves.

So I am off now, equipped with voice recorder and camera.

New mission: Climate change plus, plus.