(15.06.2009) Under the motto of “Climate Change and Human Rights – Church Positions”, the World Council of Churches, the Social Service Agency of the EKD, the Forum Menschenrechte and the United Evangelical Mission (UEM) will host a panel discussion in the Palais des Nations in Geneva within the framework of the 11th session of the UN Human Rights Council on 16 June 2009.

Dr. Jochen Motte, member of the Management Team of UEM and head of the UEM department “Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation”, explains: “The UEM has pointed out for several years, among other things with its exhibition “Climate of Justice”, that human rights are severely threatened by the climate change. Droughts and floods will put human rights to housing, food, education, and healthcare at risk. The extent to which governments perceive the climate change also as a challenge to human rights which they have to cope with will be the topic of tomorrow’s panel discussion.”

The panel discussion belongs to a series of several events dealing with climate change and human rights. The World Council of Churches has focused on this topic more intensively since 2008, following a regional conference held in the Pacific region and a lobby workshop held in New York. In May 2009, a first panel discussion was staged at the Human Rights Council with a view to the consequences already foreseeable today for Pacific island countries, as indicated by the example of Vanuatu.

Dr. Theodor Rathgeber from the Forum Menschenrechte adds: “In September there will be – likewise at the Human Rights Council – similar events on the perspective of indigenous peoples and other denominations, before the year will end with the World Climate Conference in Copenhagen.” The UEM, which is also a member of the Climate Alliance in Germany, has taken up the topic already earlier, among other things by developing the exhibition “Climate of Justice” which is well received and already fully booked until the end of 2010.