View previous stories
	Governing Our Planetary Emergency by Mary Robinson, Johan Rockstrom, Maria Espinosa Climate Governance Commission   Nov. 2023   Facing a “deepening planetary emergency” and “on a reckless path toward catastrophic climate change,” the world needs never-before-seen levels of collective wisdom, political courage, and accountability to change course, says a new report by the Climate Governance Commission.   The report, “Governing Our Planetary Emergency,” presents fifteen actions – ten near-term proposals to be achieved in the next one-to-three years, and five medium-term actions for the next three-to-five years – that must be taken across multilateral institutions, national governments, business, and international law, to set the world on a viable course.   The Climate Governance Commission, chaired by former President of Ireland and Chair of The Elders Mary Robinson; President of the 73rd UN General Assembly Maria Fernanda Espinosa; and Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research Dr. Johan Rockstrom, proposes a climate to-do list in this new report, which was released just days before tens of thousands are expected in Dubai for the start of COP28, the annual UN climate conference.   Among the near-term recommendations proposed by the Commission of experts:   Urgent improvements of climate COPs for delivery, action, and accountability to focus, reconfigure, and streamline the annual conference, currently expected to attract more than 70,000 delegates in its 28th year. The Commission also calls for the adoption of proven mediation mechanisms and majority/supermajority voting approaches to avoid logjams and prevent “a watered-down, least common denominator dynamic.”   The declaration of a “planetary emergency” by the UN General Assembly at next year’s Summit of the Future, as well as the activation of an Emergency Platform, elaborating on a proposal by the UN Secretary-General.   A Grand Bargain among the “Big Four” GHG-emitting nations (China, the U.S., India, and the EU), joined by other high-emission nations. The Commission calls for the linking, improvement, and – where needed – establishment of institutional infrastructures to evaluate the climate performance of goods and companies, and for the responsible engagement by and accountability of fossil fuel companies, executives, and associations.   Renewed efforts to bridge the great climate finance divide, including through debt forgiveness, reforms to multilateral development banks, and balanced global carbon taxes and tariffs to fund climate mitigation and adaptation in low and middle-income countries.   “We stand at the cusp of a green energy transformation, poised to shape a fairer, cleaner, healthier future. The means to finance the climate action we need to see are within reach, but it is good governance that holds the key,” said Commission co-chair and report co-author Mary Robinson.   The report provides a sobering look at the state of planetary emergency nearly a decade since the adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change.   In their foreword, Rockstrom, Robinson, and Espinosa warn that humankind is on a dangerous trajectory of intense suffering and heightened inequality, set on a “reckless path towards runaway, catastrophic climate change,” having already over-shot six of nine science-based planetary boundaries.   “We are in for a bumpy ride. Just how bumpy depends on our ability to safeguard the buffering capacity of our planet,” said report co-author Johan Rockstrom. “There’s no safe climate without protecting nature on land and in the ocean, reducing fertilizer run-off and pollution, and ensuring a robust hydrological cycle.”   Still, the report authors remain hopeful that an “all-of-society emergency effort” can adopt their fifteen specific and near-term actions in months, not decades, to make critical reforms and engage the relevant stakeholders in building a safer and more just tomorrow.   “In the face of a deepening planetary crisis, it falls upon us to be the architects of brighter and safer societies. With bold climate and environmental governance transformations suggested in the new Climate Governance Commission report, we can build low-carbon and fairer economies…and ensure a secure, flourishing future for all,” Maria Fernanda Espinosa said. “The time to avert the climate crisis is now.”   The world is currently experiencing the initial impacts of catastrophic climate change. Facing a crossroads in human history, we need novel approaches to global governance in support of unprecedented policy, private sector, and citizen-led actions, to shift course this decade and avert the worst of the emergency.   Human interference in the life-supporting functions of our planet have already caused intense suffering and heightened inequality.   Employing new and existing governance levers in more creative and technically robust ways—that harness the combined talents and commitments of governments and non-state actors—is necessary to meet our shared, colossal challenges.   Our current challenges—although daunting —are solvable, and there are many powerful, positive trends on which to build our efforts. This Report sets forth near and medium-term proposals for vital and substantial governance improvements across the international system.   Against the complex backdrop of Great Power tensions, human rights violations, expanding poverty, deepening inequality, and more concurrent violent conflicts than at any time in decades, the climate crisis, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), requires rapid global action to transform the world economy at a speed and on a scale unprecedented in human history.   In response, calls abound for large-scale global resource mobilization efforts. While some jurisdictions have declared a state of climate emergency, this has not translated into widespread concrete action plans and the governance reforms needed.   Innovative global governance solutions to effectively combat climate change and to address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution are humanity’s chief moral and practical imperative.   A continued failure to address the underlying causes of this emergency—such as a lack of concerted, accountable collective action, economic short-termism, greed, flawed definitions of economic success, entrenched dependence on fossil fuels, resource waste, overconsumption, and the destruction of nature—will have further devastating effects for all of humanity.   By prioritizing fundamental global collective action innovations, we can protect our common home for present and future generations in a just, equitable, and sustainable manner.   Together, our recommendations strive to harness the talents and respond to the exigencies of all peoples and nations, while repairing our relationship with the natural systems on which we all depend.   http://www.stimson.org/2023/governing-our-planetary-emergency/ http://ggin.stimson.org/lib/report/2023-report-of-the-climate-governance-commission-governing-our-planetary-emergency/ http://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2301531121 http://global-tipping-points.org/summary-report/narrative-summary/ http://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-climate-tipping-points-have-put-earth-on-disastrous-trajectory-says-new-report/ http://www.passblue.com/2023/11/29/the-uns-yearly-climate-gathering-must-change-to-tackle-the-planetary-emergency/ http://wmo.int/news/media-centre/2023-shatters-climate-records-major-impacts http://wmo.int/news/media-centre/rate-and-impact-of-climate-change-surges-dramatically-2011-2020 Visit the related web page
	Universal Periodic Review: China by UN Office for Human Rights, agencies   The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a peer review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. Since its first meeting was held in April 2008, all 193 UN Member States have been reviewed three times. During the fourth UPR cycle, States are again expected to spell out steps they have taken to implement recommendations posed during their previous reviews which they committed to follow up on and highlight recent human rights developments in the country.   The Universal Periodic Review provides an opportunity for all States to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to overcome challenges to the enjoyment of human rights. The UPR also includes a sharing of best human rights practices around the globe.   The UPR will assess the extent to which States respect their human rights obligations set out in: (1) the UN Charter; (2) the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; (3) human rights instruments to which the State is party (human rights treaties ratified by the State concerned); (4) voluntary pledges and commitments made by the State (e.g. national human rights policies and/or programmes implemented); and, (5) applicable international humanitarian law.   Jan. 2024   China’s human rights record to be examined by Universal Periodic Review. (OHCHR)   The human rights record of China will be examined by the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the fourth time on 23 January 2024, in a meeting in Geneva that will be webcast live.   China is one of 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session from 22 January to 2 February 2024. The first, second and third UPR reviews of China took place in February 2009, October 2013, and November 2018, respectively.   The UPR Working Group is comprised of the 47 Member States of the Human Rights Council. However, each of the 193 UN Member States can participate in a country review.   The documents on which the reviews are based are: 1) national report - information provided by the State under review; 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information provided by other stakeholders including national human rights institutions, regional organizations, and civil society groups.   The three reports serving as the basis for the review of China on 23 January can be found here: http://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/upr/cn-index   Jan. 2024 (Guardian News, agencies)   Several countries have criticised China’s human rights record this week as the country was subjected to rare scrutiny of its policies at the United Nations.   The UK called on China to “cease the persecution and arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and Tibetans and allow genuine freedom of religion or belief and cultural expression without fear of surveillance, torture, forced labour or sexual violence”, while the US said China should “release all arbitrarily detained individuals” and cease the operation of “forcible assimilation policies including boarding schools in Tibet and Xinjiang”.   The UK also recommended that the national security law in Hong Kong be repealed and specifically called for the prosecution of the pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai to be dropped.   The recommendations were made as part of the UN Human Rights Council’s universal periodic review, a mechanism by which the 193 UN member states review each others’ human rights records every five years.   Each country at the UN headquarters in Geneva was given 45 seconds to make recommendations based on China’s human rights records since 2018. In that period, huge protests against the tightening grip of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) in Hong Kong prompted the imposition of a national security law that critics say criminalises dissent, and there has been increased international scrutiny of the human rights situation in Xinjiang, as well as growing concern about transnational repression as activists overseas have been targeted by Chinese authorities or agents.   Responding to the recommendations, China’s UN ambassador, Chen Xu, said concerns were caused by “misunderstanding or misinformation”. Chen said: “A few countries groundlessly accuse and smear China, based not on facts but on ideological bias and unfounded rumours and lies.”   The meeting was the first time China has been through the review process since the UN’s report on Xinjiang was published in August 2022. The long-delayed report, which was written by the outgoing human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet, found China was committing “serious human rights violations” against Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Beijing described it as “disinformation”.   Several countries brought up China’s policies in Xinjiang during the meeting. The region, along with Tibet, has become a byword for Beijing’s repressive human rights policies, particularly towards religious and ethnic minorities.   Human rights activists said that the fact that several countries mentioned Tibet in this year’s review bucked a recent trend of the region not being spoken about on the international stage.   Many smaller countries, or countries that are economically dependent on China, praised China’s rights record, in particular its success at lifting tens of millions of people out of poverty since 2018.   Ethiopia said it “applauds China for improving the criminal litigation system”. Bhutan, a small, landlocked country between India and China that has recently been warming its relationship with Beijing, said: “We commend the significant progress in poverty alleviation and the achievement of the poverty reduction target of the 2030 agenda ahead of schedule.”   Speaking after the UN session, Sophie Richardson, a former China director for Human Rights Watch, said: “We increasingly hear Chinese government rhetoric in the recommendations made by governments, I think indicating a level of control over the process or influence over the process, and that’s problematic.”   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2024/08/china-update-work-un-human-rights-office http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/01/chinas-human-rights-record-be-examined-universal-periodic-review http://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/upr/cn-index http://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/upr/upr-home http://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/upr/documentation http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/china-s-un-rights-review-will-test-alignment-of-global-south/49150342 http://ishr.ch/latest-updates/at-the-un-review-of-chinas-rights-record-states-lay-bare-laundry-list-of-atrocity-crimes-generalised-crackdown/ http://www.hrw.org/news/2024/07/04/meaningful-follow-needed-chinas-un-rights-review-concludes http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/01/china-attempts-to-gaslight-international-community-at-un-human-rights-review/ http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3249538/chinas-united-nations-human-rights-review-puts-global-divide-display http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/China-s-human-rights-record-under-U.N.-spotlight Visit the related web page
	View more stories