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PhD student and Law Faculty tutor Keely Boom won a global law competi... |
UOW PhD student wins global climate change comp
Could Pacific nations sue Australia for a breach of human rights because of our high carbon emissions?
This is one question posed by UOW PhD researcher and Law Faculty tutor Keely Boom in her winning entry into an international law competition run by Oxfam International, the Climate Justice Programme and Advocates for International Development.
The competition was designed to show how international law could protect people from climate change. Entrants had to write a complaint that was based upon a scenario involving a fictional country called Algoria, a “small, mid-latitude, developing country” which will be strongly affected by climate change.
Ms Boom has just started her PhD in the Law Faculty, which looks at whether climate change is a violation of human rights. She is the Executive Officer for the Australian Climate Justice Program and decided to enter the competition because of her background in this area.
“The competition was a refreshing way to look at climate change, because it provided a scenario and human face.”
Ms Boom’s entry made a case against Australia – saying it was responsible for a breach of human rights against the citizens of Algoria. She said she decided to map out the case against Australia because of its high carbon emissions.
“While Australia has low emissions in absolute terms, it has the highest per capita emissions in the world, and hasn’t reduced emissions,” she said.
Her complaint begins: “The State of Algoria complains that Australia is failing to fulfil its existing obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights due to its historical and continuing contribution to anthropogenic climate change and its associated impacts upon the human rights and fundamental freedoms recognised in ICCPR as held by the citizens of the State of Algoria.”
The complaint raised questions about whether Australia is responsible for the human rights of people outside the country – and Ms Boom said that because climate change is trans-boundary Australia might be able to be held responsible.
She also said that countries such as New Zealand and Australia were ready to claim a breach of human rights when France conducted nuclear testing on Mururoa atoll and perhaps a similar logic could be applied in the case of climate change.
This week Ms Boom went to London to collect her prize, which was presented by an impressive line-up of internationally renowned lawyers - Professor in International Law Christine Chinkin, Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum Judge Tuiloma Neroni Slade, Oxfam legal advisor Joss Saunders and Deputy High Court Judge Stephen Hockman QC.
“This was an international competition for lawyers, so entries were of quite a high standard,” she said. “One of the judges is from the International Criminal Court, so it is an honour to win.”
For the future, Ms Boom hopes to complete her PhD as quickly as possible – because climate change is such a pressing issue – and continue her work on human rights and international law.
“I was also in London partly for a meeting of campaigning environmental lawyers to explore exactly the kind of claims that I wrote about in my winning entry,” she said.
For more information on the competition, click here.