Dr. Oliver C. Ruppel, Prof. at Stellenbosch University addresses the GPODS fellows
Dr. Oliver Ruppel delivered a talk titled: ‘The Role of Human Rights in Climate Lawsuits.’ Through this talk, he discussed the concepts of Climate Change, Climate Justice, and the Climatic Ramifications on the level of Human Rights in various regions. He also took up topics of legal relevance, which included slides on Judicial Activism vs. Judicial Self-Restraint and the role of courts on this matter. He discussed statutes such as the Arhus Convention and cases before the European Court of Human Rights. In his final segments, he also discussed what the future role of science entails in this matter.
Introducing the overall issue of climate change, he established them as “one of the most important challenges of our time.” With impacts that are seen everywhere, there are various regulations such as the Paris Agreement, but being a complex issue it affects all the aspects of our lives.. Anecdotally, Dr. Ruppel shared with the fellows that the organizations he has worked with have proven the pervasiveness of anthropogenic Climate Change and that over all, Greenhouse Gas emissions have risen dramatically, which have heated the atmosphere.
Moving to sections on human rights, Dr. Ruppel talked about how bad climates deprive us of our right to life, right to dignity, right to food and water. He then called upon courts to exercise some form of judicial activism and to become more liberal in their workings. As guardians of human rights, they have the duty to defend us during these matters. Due to this, more cases on Climate Change will be enacted and public interest litigations will be called upon in countries. According to Dr. Ruppel, this can go a long way in bolstering the quality of life. Moreover, suits and laws can be enacted against individuals and corporations that are guilty of such large-scale emissions.
He then moved on to speak about the role that international courts could play. In all cases, emissions from one country deeply affect the world as a whole and cause devastation in other countries too. As a result, courts like the ICJ or the European Court of Human Rights can adjudicate on these suits that relate to these cases.
While concluding, he reiterated how crucial it was to limit the greenhouse gas emissions to bolster human rights and stressed on how national courts can work as a spillover to international obligations.
About the GPODS fellowship:
The Global Policy, Diplomacy and Sustainability (GPODS) is a program for public policy practitioners, business professionals, energy and climate change experts, entrepreneurs, academicians, scholars and strategic analysts to act as a launch pad for their careers. Currently we have fellows from five different countries namely USA, France, UK, Israel, Italy and 40+ world leaders as mentors from 15 different countries
About the speaker:
Dr. Oliver Ruppel is the professor of public and international law, as well as the director of the development and rule of law program at the Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He’s a distinguished fellow at the DFraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy of Germany. He’s also at the Advisory Committee on the Platform of Disaster and Displacement, Switzerland. Given his proclivity for the environment, he is also on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.