Joint Statement to Philippines Commission on Human Rights
The undersigned organizations and individuals are honored to share with the Commission on Human Rights the attached Joint Summary of the Amicus Curiae Briefs submitted in support of Petitioners, Greenpeace Southeast Asia et al. Through this submission, the undersigned amici hope to facilitate the Commission’s review of the evidence and analysis presented by the amici in their respective briefs and to aid the Commission’s path-breaking inquiry into the responsibility of the Carbon Majors companies for human rights violations or threats of violations resulting from the impacts of climate change.
... The amici are united in their common concern at the scale and urgency of the climate crisis, the impacts of which are now felt on a daily basis throughout the Philippines and around the world. As an extensive body of peer-reviewed science demonstrates, climate change is causing severe environmental, economic, and social impacts at current levels of planetary warming, and these impacts only will intensify with any additional warming... Given these immense human rights impacts, it is equally important that people have access to justice... [and] [t]his groundbreaking proceeding before the Commission presents one such critically important avenue. Though the present inquiry is not judicial in nature, the Commission’s findings and recommendations can play a vital role in bringing the truth to light, laying the foundations for accountability, and respecting, protecting, and promoting human rights in the Philippines and beyond.