An Open letter to Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and New Zealand-Aotearoa Prime Minister Helen Clark

Submission to the Review Board of the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER)

Time for a New Approach: Consultation and Non-Discrimination the Key

August 2008

Excerpts from introduction to the submission:-

This submission from ERC will attempt to answer a number of the reference questions provided by the Northern Territory Emergency Response Review Board, specifically Questions 4, 6 and 8.

However, ERC would like to note that the NTER in general has suffered from a lack of clarity about key goals and desired outcomes. It is impossible to answer many of these questions for the simple reason that there are not sufficient criteria for measurement of performance.

Policy should be based on good empirical evidence measured with well-known and agreed criteria. Thus far, there is a lack of both ood empirical evidence and good criteria in this context.

The Pacific Calling Partnership invites you to a participatory forum Pacific Calling for Climate Justice a human rights framework?

Pacific Calling for Climate Justice

Conference Resolutions

The Conference proposes the following issues and proposals for consideration by the COP 14 in Poznan, the Pacific Calling Partnership and the climate movement in Australia:

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
SENATE
LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENCES COMMITTEE
Reference: Administration and Operation of the Migration Act 1958

1. Edmund Rice Centre Submission to the Enquiry - 26 Sept 2008
   
2. Edmund Rice Centre Testimony to Committee Hearing - 28 Sept 2008
   
3. Edmund Rice Centre Responses to Questions on Notice from Testimony - 27 October 2008

MEDIA RELEASE

Indigenous leaders call Rudd and UN to action on climate.

Sydney, 30th November 2008:

Meeting in Sydney this week, indigenous leaders from across the Pacific have called on Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, to show true leadership for human rights and justice at the upcoming December UN Climate Change negotiations in Poznán, Poland.

This enjoyable Sunday afternoon activity will bring together culture and concern, fun and action. Please join us. There is an invitation attached.

Claire Anterea of Kiribati - "Taking the Pacific climate change message to the UNFCCC in Bali"

A car dominated transport system is a recipe for disaster. They are expensive, unhealthy and dangerous.

Without a total rethink and dramatic changes our cities risk economic and environmental collapse.1 People are pushed into private vehicles. Building more freeways is seen a solution.

Minimal planning or spending has not gone into healthier alternatives such a cycling and walking. 2 There are rising health costs due to toxic gas and particle emissions; medical costs due to obesity; and the cost associated with accidents. The threat from greenhouse gas emissions to global warming might be the greatest cost. 3

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Media Release

Asylum Seeker Documentary Provokes Overwhelming Response

Greenhouse Emissions Target Must Uphold Human Rights
12 December 2008
Dear Prime Minister
Upholding fundamental principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples......

Naomi Biribo of Kiribati - "Sea level rise: A serious threat to some countries. Case study of Fiji and Kiribati"

Failure to stop climate change will result in the population of Tuvalu becoming climate refugee. We do not want to get to that extent, but we may just end up as climate refugee if the world failed to do their obligations.Click here to read more about what we can do to help.

This paper was originally presented at the Environment, Forced Migration and Social Vulnerability International Conference 9-11 October 2008 Bonn, Germany

Alex Bhathal is a Social Worker from Melbourne who has had a longstanding involvement in migration and refugee rights advocacy and local environmentalism. Alex has served as the Welfare Spokesperson for the Australian Greens Victoria and is currently a member of Friends of the Earth Australia’s Climate Justice Collective. Alex is a PhD student with Curtin University’s Centre for Human Rights Education. Her PhD research is on climate displacement in the Asia-Pacific region and the campaign for recognition of climate refugees, in particular within Australia.

Dr Chris McGrath's main research interests is protecting coral reefs from climate change impacts. rather than expend greenhouse gases travelling from Brisbane he sent a summary of a paper he has written that examined the scientific evidence of the threat of climate change on coral reefs in the Pacific and the policy targets necessary to avoid severe impacts. Healthy coral reefs are vital for maintaining food supplies and human rights in the Pacific. Climate stabilisation targets of 450-550 ppm carbon dioxide equivalents, allowing a rise of 2-3 degrees Celsius in mean global temperatures, are too high. If we wish to protect coral reefs in the Pacific we should aim to stabilise atmospheric greenhouse gases at 350 ppm carbon dioxide equivalents, allowing a rise of 1 degree Celsius in mean global temperatures

This Pacific Calling Partnership Presentation Resource Kit provides a guide for people who want to give a speech, run a workshop or prepare an event or liturgy. It will help you prepare with confidence for those public opportunities that come your way.

Summary Table of documented Extreme Events in South Tarawa, Kiribati from 2001 - 2005

An account of the high onshore waves at Marakei on the 9th December 2008.

This interesting article on climate change was written by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, the popular science writer and radio personality (actually the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow at the University of Sydney).

It is well worth reading all the way through as it explains why certain newspapers are continually publishing articles throwing doubt on the consensus that climatologists have reached with regard to climate change. The article also gives a very clear explanation of climate change.

Overview of Pacific Calling Partnership Achievements 2008.

Order Form for the Kiribati and Global Warming DVD, Turn Down the Heat music CD and Resource Book

Pacific Calling Partership Strategic Plan for 2009

A letter from Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand requesting assistance in providing stories of the impact of Climate Change in the Pacific.

These comments are on behalf of the Pacific Calling Partnership, a group of organisations and individuals who recognise Australia’s ecological debt to our low-lying Pacific Island neighbours.

This discussion paper assesses the experience learnt from New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer Scheme to help evaluate Australia's proposed Pacific Islander Seasonal Worker pilot scheme.

An article "Environment: Fears and Hopes of the Islands" by Samisoni Pareti

Action ideas from Franciscans at Stroud NSW

Over 60 religious leaders and prominent religious individuals have written to the Prime Minister, ahead of the release of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme exposure draft legislation, to express their deep concerns with the Government's inadequate response to climate change.

“Asylum seekers do not come to Australia because they think that the government has ´softened on border protection´. Asylum seekers come to Australia because of horrendous violence and conflict in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.¨

Reflections from NZ journalist Dev Nadkarni on the unintended effects of suspending Fiji from the Pacific Island Forum - NZ Herald May 8 2009

Pacific Calling Partnership Resource Order Form -- as at June 2012

These short films, Sisters on the Planet, tell the stories of six women from very different parts of the world. They face unique challenges but together are finding solutions and bringing about change. These stories of courage, tenacity and inspiration offer us hope in the face of increasingly bleak climate predictions.

Increases in the prices of energy and food in recent years pose an enormous problem for the 5.1 billion people in developing nations – roughly a billion of whom live on the equivalent of one dollar a day.

Access to adequate food is a right protected by international law, yet the ongoing emergency may reinforce long-entrenched patterns of exclusion and discrimination.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Association 854 million people of the world’s 6.5 billion people do not receive their minimum daily food requirement.

The 83% increase in food prices over the last three years has been catastrophic for these people on the margins of the global economy.

The most severe repercussions of this crisis will be felt by people already living in precarious and marginalised situations, particularly women and children, minorities and people with disabilities.

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When we reflect on indicators of health on our planet – global warming, wealth distribution, social unrest, war – very few would think of Dreamtime stories.

But perhaps we are wise to recall that how we understand our place in the cosmos actually does have a material effect on the will to keep breathing, keep doing, and surviving.

The land is fundamental for healthy individual, family, clan group, society, community and nation. The land governs Aboriginal law and life. And it is from connection to country that Aboriginal identity and belonging derive.

Description

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A Human Rights Charter / Act is needed to provide an Australian framework by which our society can more transparently and consistently protect and promote the human rights of all Australian society.

A Human Rights Act is not a Bill of Rights and therefore not part of our Constitution. Download this discussion paper to read more including our list of common misconceptions about Human Rights Acts.

This article outlines the need for the CPRS to take a smarter appraoch to International Offset Credits.

Oliver Sartor works for the Center for Energy and Environmental Markets (CEEM) at the University of New South Wales as a Researcher. CEEM is a multidisciplinary research center bringing together expertise from the Faculties of Economics, Engineering and Social Sciences. It's work focuses mainly on the economics, innovation and governance issues surrounding energy and environmental markets.

Words, Images, Voices
Literature for Children and Young Adults – Speaking of Justice

The Justice Literary Event provides a forum where outstanding writers and leaders in the field, present their views of how themes of social justice, eco justice and human rights are featured in literature for children and young adults.

A fair-weather friend? Australia’s relationship with a climate-changed Pacific. A report released by The Australia Institute

The approximately 3,000 Catholic religious brothers and sisters of NSW and their many associates would like you to do the following as soon as possible

Suva, Fiji 2009

"As Pasifika Youth, we call upon our leaders to move us in unison towards a cleaner, greener, sustainable future for all.".......

The profile of the Pacific Calling Partnership continues to grow with an unstoppable momentum as it humanises the issue of climate change and continues to educate the community about how climate change is affecting low lying islands and what can be done about it. The PCP is in regular demand to collaborate with large and small Non Government Organisations for their DVD making, to speaking at events, running workshops, giving advice and Pacific contacts.

This paper outlines the work of the Pacific Calling Partnership (PCP). It seeks to show how the work of the PCP connects to the broader framework of international civil society advocacy in relation to climate change.

You are invited to a Pacific Islander gathering on the 18th of September 2009.

Updated Order Form (Sept 09) for the Kiribati and Global Warming DVD, Turn Down the Heat music CD and Resource Book.

Please click here to read a media statement from the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).

The statement welcomes declarations of support for stronger climate targets, to limit temperature increases to as far below 1.5 degrees Celsius as possible, from figures as diverse as the Group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), the World Council of Churches, Lord Nicholas Stern and the IPCC's chief scientist Rajendra Pachauri.

At the front line of climate change's impacts, AOSIS is the moral voice of the negotiations, and was recently joined by the Group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in demanding that the new Copenhagen climate agreement limit temperature increases to as far below 1.5 degrees Celsius as possible. AOSIS targets have been supported recently by IPCC Chair Rajendra Pachauri and leading UK economist and climate expert Lord Nicholas Stern.

Serious adverse impacts are already being felt by island states at the current 0.8°C of warming, including coastal erosion, flooding, coral bleaching and more frequent and intense extreme weather events. The U.N.'s lead agency on refugees has already warned that some particularly low-lying island states are 'very likely to become entirely uninhabitable' as a result of climate change. AOSIS is therefore calling for the negotiations to produce an ambitious and environmentally credible outcome sufficient to safeguard the livelihood and survival of its member countries.