Season 4, Episode 7: Taking Germany to Court: Legal Actions for Climate Justice and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Discussing the necessity for an ever-expanding intersectional climate justice movement, edna bonhomme and Indigenous lawyer and climate activist Yi Yi Prue are in conversation for this episode, expanding on Prue’s legal actions that took Germany to court for global warming in January 2020, holding the German state accountable for the ongoing climate catastrophe, a crisis created by the Global North that has already created devastation and unlivable conditions around the world especially in the Global South. In June 2020, Prue submitted a report to the UN Special Rapporteur for the Rights of Indigenous peoples to the UN General Assembly on the Impact of COVID-19 on Indigenous peoples. Prue also shares more about her legal practice in Dhaka, Bangladesh, her journey as a climate activist, and her commitment to practicing climate justice.
Biography
Yi Yi Prue
Yi Yi Prue is an Indigenous lawyer and climate activist from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Prue advocates for the Indigenous perspectives from Bangladesh and Nepal, for example Marma, Munda and Tamang communities, who are heavily affected by climate change-related catastrophes, that are the result of historic colonial and current neocolonial exploitation. In January 2020, she successfully led a complaint at the German Constitutional Court against the insufficient German climate protection measures.
Quotations
Excerpt from Yi Yi Prue’s Report “Hit by Multiple Crises” she submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur for the Rights of Indigenous peoples to the UN General Assembly on the Impact of COVID-19 on Indigenous peoples (June 19, 2020):
“The UN Special Rapporteur has called for inputs to his report on the impact of COVID-19 on indigenous peoples (Annex 1) to be presented in the UN General Assembly in October 2020. It is to be noted that the People’s Republic of Bangladesh currently does not recognize the indigenous peoples as indigenous. The 15th Amendment of the Constitution (30 June 2011) calls the people of Bangladesh “Bangalees” as a nation. Since then indigenous peoples by official sources have been grouped – together with other minority communities - as “tribes, minor races, ethnic sects and communities” or as “small ethnic groups”. This is part of the problem as it is an obstacle to designing approaches and policies according to the specific cultural, economic and social needs of the communities, who in the area of coverage of this document mainly belong to Munda community.”
In this document the term “indigenous” is used as defined by international law, e.g. in the ILO Convention 169 (1989) or the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007). In this regard, the Munda community is considered indigenous and their situation qualifies to be analysed under this call for inputs (Annex 2).
This report has been compiled under very difficult circumstances in the aftermath of the super cyclone Amphan and the consequent wave swiping away more than hundred villages which devastated large areas in the coastal zones of Bangladesh with water receding from most of the flooded areas only just before this report had to be completed. This situation features as a specific element of this report, highlighting the impacts of a combination of multiple crises affecting the Munda communities in the two Subdistricts Koyra and Shyamnagar (Annex 3). For these communities earlier economic and social deprivation has been aggravated by climate change effects and this again multiplied by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Community members were contacted only in the week after 14 June 2020 while the pandemic is still evolving in the country. All the field research (Annex 4) has been done by unpaid volunteers – indigenous and non-indigenous - who met the affected people in their current temporary shelters in spite of heavy rain falls. Similarly the interviews with health officials, journalists, staff of NGOs and Munda leadership, the analysis and editing of this report were done on a voluntary basis without any funding.”
…
”Nobody from among the local Munda community leadership has been asked for inputs on policy making for COVID-19 responses or relief efforts. The Munda people in both subdistricts even lack access to decision makers on subdistrict level. Their opinion was not sought by the responsible authorities.
Community members communicate with NGOs working in their areas and sometimes with the chairperson of the Union Parishad, however this being a level where no policies are designed. Even the Munda community leaders expressed that they find it unimaginable that they would be listened to and that their opinion could be taken into consideration (response: “not applicable”; another: “it is not possible”). When food aid was distributed after the lockdown was imposed on 26 March 2020, Munda cultural organisations submitted a list of vulnerable households to the local political, administrative and military leadership on subdistrict level which however they experienced was not taken into consideration. The distribution of relief was highly mediated and increased the feeling among the Munda that they are left out.”
Excerpt from Yi Yi Prue’s recent article in the taz, a German newspaper (in German and English): “Erderwärmung als Soziale Frage: Eine Stimme den Klima-Opfern (Giving a Voice to Climate Change Victims),” taz.
“The climate issue is the big problem determining our future and it will show which path my country wants to follow. In order to get support for the Constitutional Complaint, I went to Nepal and visited indigenous communities there. When I talked with the local people, I understood how different disasters combine to impact their lives. They explained that they experience floods, earthquakes and landslides frequently. Poverty is a big problem. When there was much snow in winter they could not heat their houses….Climate justice needs public support, if legal action is supposed to be successful…The Constitutional Complaint for Germany was only the first step.”
Excerpt from “An Open Letter to Extinction Rebellion” collaboratively written, published by Wretched of The Earth (May 4, 2019)
"The fight for climate justice is the fight of our lives, and we need to do it right."
Bibliography
Appunn, Kerstine, Julian Wettengel, “Germany's Climate Action Law,” Clean Energy Wire (July 12, 2021).
Indigenous World 2020: UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (May 2020), United Nations Human Rights Council.
Amelang, Sören, Kerstine Appunn, Charlotte Nijhuis, Julian Wettengel, “Reactions to Top Court Ruling That Germany's Climate Policies are Insufficient,” Clean Energy Wire (April 21, 2021).
Prue, Yi Yi, “Erderwärmung als Soziale Frage: Eine Stimme den Klima-Opfern (Giving a Voice to Climate Change Victims),” taz.
Prue, Yi Yi, “Hit by Multiple Crises: The Situation of the Munda Indigenous Community in the Subdistricts Koyra and Shyamnagar (Khulna Division, Bangladesh) During the COVID-19 Crisis and in Relation to Severe Impacts of Climate Change” Report submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights (June 19, 2020).
“An Open Letter to Extinction Rebellion (May 4, 2019),” a collectively written letter published by Wretched of the Earth, a grassroots collective for Indigenous, black, brown and diaspora groups and individuals demanding climate justice and acting in solidarity with our communities, both in the UK and in the Global South.
Show Credits
Interview
edna bonhomme
Post-production
Kristyna Comer
music
All music is from Freesounds.org (Creative Commons)
Thank you
A special thanks to Yi Yi Prue and Mine Wenzel!