Scientists, campaigners and politicians gather in Stockholm to testify on climate change and its consequences for human rights: Humanity on Trial
Humanity on Trial (humanityontrial.wordpress.com) kicks off on 29 May at Kulturhuset with an inquiry into the effects of climate change on human rights. Experts from all corners of the globe, including former Swedish Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson, Stockholm Environment Institute's Professor Johan Rockström and world renowned climatologist Professor Stephen Schneider, will testify to the inquiry panel.
The inquiry, organised by Stockholm Environment Institute, the Anna Lindh Memorial Fund and MR-dagarna, is set in the year 2020. Eleven years ago, the world gathered at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. At that point, we had the opportunity to do something about the changes in our climate that are profoundly affecting human rights. Given what we already knew in 2009 – what could we have done? The next generation asks us what we were thinking. - We hope to concentrate on the opportunities at hand: with what we know in 2009 about the consequences of climate change for people and their human rights, what can we do? says Charlotta Åsell from the Anna Lindh Memorial Fund. - Setting the event in the future gives us the chance to explore the tools that are at our disposal today and to see what the risks are if we don’t act urgently, says Clarisse Kehler Siebert, climate Lawyer and Research Fellow for SEI’s Climate and Energy programme. The inquiry will take place at Lava, Kulturhuset, from 09:00 to 13:00. Humanity on Trial will continue on 16-17 November in Stockholm, as part of Swedish Forum for Human Rights, or MR-dagarna. It will feature eye witness accounts from communities around the world whose lives are affected by climate change. The nine experts for the inquiry are: - Stephen Schneider, world-renowned Climatologist from Stanford University and lead author of the report by the Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - Frida Eklund, Climate Change Campaign Executive, Oxfam, London - Richard Klein, Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute and IPCC climate policy analyst - Johan Rockström, Executive Director of the Stockholm Environment Institute - Jan Eliasson, Chairman of the Anna Lindh Memorial Fund and former Minister of Foreign Affairs - Xiangyu Zhao (Shane), International Director of the China Youth Climate Action Network - Na Wang, Project Leader at GlobalFOCUS and student at Uppsala University - Clarisse Kehler Siebert, Climate Lawyer at the Stockholm Environment Institute - Carl Söderbergh, Policy Director at Minority Rights Group, London, and former Secretary General of Amnesty Sweden
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