The impact of climate change on indigenous people – the implications for the cultural, spiritual, economic and legal rights of indigenous people

Abstract

Scientific evidence has established that athropogenic carbon pollution and climate change will have a catastrophic and devastating impact on indigenous people.1 Sadly, many of humanity's oldest people face the loss of their traditional homelands and the extinction of their people as early as 2050,2 which represents one of the greatest losses and tragedies to the human family and one of the most serious crimes in human history. The aim of this article is to therefore critically examine the impact of climate change on indigenous people and to assess the legal rights available to those communities to seek redress. Part 1 of the paper shall examine the catastrophic and devastating impact of climate change on indigenous people. Part 2 of the article shall provide a survey of the most recent legal decisions at a national, regional and international level and provide an analysis of the emerging academic commentary in the field. Part 3 of the article shall critically examine the major historical, philosophical and institutional limitations of the Western juridical tradition to protect and uphold the rights of indigenous people. As such, the focus of the paper is strictly on litigation and it does not engage with the vitally important issues of policy, mitigation and adaptation, from which, in any case, indigenous people have been largely excluded.3 While there have been positive developments in case law, the literature reveals that climate change litigation offers little hope for indigenous people. The article will conclude by arguing that current domestic and international legal systems as presently constructed are incapable of protecting the unique rights of indigenous people and culminates in a call for the establishment of an International Court for Human Rights and an International Court for the Environment to prevent the destruction of the traditional homelands of indigenous people and the extinction of humanity's oldest people.