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Climate Change As Human Rights Issue

PENNSYLVANIA RECORD

Thursday, November 21, 2024

Climate Change As Human Rights Issue

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Trevor Stankiewicz Legal Fellow at Climate Rights International (CRI) | Penn Carey Law

Trevor Stankiewicz L’23, a Legal Fellow at Climate Rights International (CRI), recently co-authored, “On Thin Ice: Disproportionate Responses to Climate Change Protesters in Democratic Countries,” which documents the increasingly heavy-handed treatment of climate protests in Australia, Germany, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The report demonstrates how, in cracking down on climate activists, governments are violating their legal commitments to protect basic rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association.

“Protest is one of the tools afforded to citizens of democracies to have their voices heard,” said Stankiewicz. “Governments want people not to engage in this type of action, and that’s a failure because protests have given us so much.”

The report also discusses the cases of German citizen Winfried Lorenz, who received 22 months in prison without parole for his participation in a sit-in blockade—believed to be the longest prison sentence ever imposed in Berlin against a peaceful climate protester— and Sieger Sloot, a Dutch actor and activist, who encouraged his social media followers to join a peaceful protest, which was to include blocking a roadway, at The Hague. The police arrested him before the protest began and prosecuted him for sedition.

CRI works in partnership with local and international groups to document how human rights violations contribute to climate change and how climate change contributes to human rights abuses.

Pathway to Public Service

Before law school, Stankiewicz, who holds English and performing and media arts degrees from Cornell, spent five years working in nonprofit theater, collaborating with nonprofits and NGOs to create theater-based advocacy tools. While researching a play about the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar for Fortify Rights, an NGO that works to ensure human rights for all, Stankiewicz spent three months in Southeast Asia, visiting Myanmar, Bangladesh and northern Thailand to conduct interviews and gather testimonials.

During the work, he realized he wanted to do more than document the tragedy.

“I wanted to be involved in keeping these things from happening in the first place,” he said.

Upon entering the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, Stankiewicz was concerned he would spend three years sitting on the sidelines, in the classroom, learning theory. To his great delight, however, he participated in a wide array of experiential learning through pro bono projects, including in housing, youth education, and digital rights as well as with the International Human Rights Association. His internship with Fortify Rights was funded by the Mead Fellowship, made possible through the generosity of Scott Mead L’82.

Stankiewicz’s staunch commitment to public service was recognized at graduation with the Edwin C. Baker Award for excellence in advancing social justice, given to the graduating student who completed the most cumulative pro bono hours.

The Intersection of Climate Change and Human Rights

An international human rights class with Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, Perry World House Professor of Practice of Law and Human Rights, and William Burke-White, Professor of Law, deepened Stankiewicz’s interest in climate change. The course analyzed climate change from various perspectives, including through a human rights lens.

“A lot of the rhetoric was that this was going to be the human rights issue of our times,” Stankiewicz said. “And I never really thought of climate change as a human rights issue; I had the image of polar bears and turtles. But it’s forcing displacement. It’s causing food insecurity. There’s a whole lot of ways this is going to affect people on an incredibly large scale moving forward.”

During his second year of law school, Stankiewicz’s work with the Ministry of Environment and Water in Bulgaria on climate change policy convinced him to focus his efforts there. CRI, he said, allows him to combine passions for both climate change issues and human rights.

The Future of Climate Change Protests

“On Thin Ice” has received considerable media attention from outlets such as The Guardian, CNN, and Democracy Now! In addition to raising awareness of climate change, Stankiewicz said, it was important for the protesters to see their stories told.

Equally critical, he noted, is that these conversations are occurring in the mainstream.

“When I first started writing this report, it really felt like people were against these types of protests, the sit-ins in the traffic and the art museum actions,” Stankiewicz said. “They rubbed people the wrong way, and certainly there are people who don’t like them. But I’ve seen the sentiment change to ‘okay, a half hour when you can’t get to work is really frustrating, but when the roads are flooded for a week, that’s going to be more frustrating.”

Following the completion of his Penn Carey Law Catalyst Fellowship, Stankiewicz will continue working at CRI.

Charges against climate protesters, he said, are both a human rights and an international law issue.

“These countries are cracking down against international human rights law on protected freedoms, namely the freedom of assembly, expression, and the right to protest. So, I think we’re helping contribute to that dialogue to move the needle and get these people the support they need.

“And now we’re trying to say, ‘The next conversation is that governments are failing twice: Once for cracking down on these protesters, and again by shirking their responsibility to lead the fight against climate change in the first place.’ It’s a dual failure,” said Stankiewicz, “and that’s where we’re hoping this conversation will lead.”

Original source can be found here.

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