Climate Change, Culture and Cultural Rights In Preparation for the Report by the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Karima Bennoune Memo / Expanded Outline Prepared by Justine Marrion Massey With contributions from Spring 2020 UN Practicum Students University of California Davis School of Law May 15, 2020 Table of Contents I. Introduction/Overview .................................................................................. 4 a. Introduction to Subject Matter ............................................................................................................. 4 b. Summary of Report, importance of addressing the nexus of climate, culture and human rights ........ 5 c. Inextricable relationship between human rights and health of the environment ................................ 6 i. Culture is reciprocally integrated with ecosystems. ........................................................................... 6 1. Both culture and the environment are crucially place-based. ...................................................................... 7 2. Like the fulfillment of human rights, climate action occurs on both the global and local level. .................. 9 ii. “Climate change impacts human lives and livelihoods, culture and values, and whole ecosystems.” (IPCC, 2018, p. 76) .................................................................................................................................... 9 iii. Human rights impacts due to climate change ................................................................................. 9 1. SR on extreme poverty and human rights report (Alston, 2019) .................................................................. 9 2. SR on the human right to a healthy environment 2019 report §III (Boyd, 2019) ......................................... 9 d. State of climate crisis: Culture under threat ......................................................................................... 9 i. Status quo impossible to sustain ........................................................................................................ 9 1. IPCC reports of anticipated impacts ............................................................................................................. 9 2. Threat multiplier ......................................................................................................................................... 11 II. Relevant International Legal Standards ............................................................ 11 a. Cultural Rights Standards .................................................................................................................... 11 i. World Heritage Convention 1972 ..................................................................................................... 11 b. Environmental Law Standards ............................................................................................................ 13 i. Stockholm Declaration ..................................................................................................................... 13 ii. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ........................................... 13 iii. Paris Agreement ............................................................................................................................. 14 iv. Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 ............................................................ 16 v. Convention on Biological Diversity .................................................................................................. 16 c. Standards that address the intersections of climate and culture (i.e. Pocantico call to action) ......... 17 d. Work by relevant UN human rights bodies ......................................................................................... 17 e. Work by relevant regional human rights bodies ................................................................................. 18 f. Work by relevant national bodies ........................................................................................................ 19 III. The Negative Impacts of Climate Change on Culture, Cultural Heritage and Cultural Rights 20 a. Impacts on cultural practices .............................................................................................................. 20 i. Disruption of cultural life .................................................................................................................. 20 1. Loss of stability ........................................................................................................................................... 20 2. Destruction of resources, both built and natural ....................................................................................... 21 3. Displacement .............................................................................................................................................. 23 ii. Threatened local/traditional knowledge and practices .................................................................. 23 1. Fading accuracy of seasonal and place-based knowledge .......................................................................... 23 2. Loss of relevance and feasibility of practices .............................................................................................. 24 b. Impacts on cultural heritage sites: Destruction or degradation of sites ............................................. 25 i. Imperiled existence ........................................................................................................................... 25 ii. Identifying threatened local sites .................................................................................................... 25 iii. WHC Case Studies on Climate Change and World Heritage ........................................................... 27 iv. WHC Managing Cultural World Heritage ....................................................................................... 28 v. WHC Managing Disaster Risks for World Heritage ......................................................................... 28 vi. WHC Managing Natural World Heritage ....................................................................................... 28 c. Impacts on cultural diversity, language rights/diversity ..................................................................... 29 IV. The Positive Potential of Culture, Cultural Heritage and Cultural Rights to enhance responses to climate change and build resilience ..................................................... 29 a. Arts and culture ................................................................................................................................... 29 b. Traditional and local knowledge ......................................................................................................... 31 c. Cultural Heritage ................................................................................................................................. 34 d. The Right to Science ............................................................................................................................ 35 e. Culture and cultural rights can lend strength to the fight against climate change and lead the transition to the necessary “societal transformation” called for by the IPCC to achieve pathways that limit carbon emissions. ............................................................................................................................... 35 i. Envisioning, modeling “adaption pathways” (IPCC, 2014, p. 19) ..................................................... 36 ii. Culture as a crucial tool for implementing climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies . 36 1. Wide-reaching education method .............................................................................................................. 36 2. Synergies with conservation culture ........................................................................................................... 37 3. Culture as a dynamic expression of values ................................................................................................. 37 iii. Cultural standards set norms/expectations/parameters for action ............................................... 37 vi. Culture influences local and global economy (consumer culture), but must have access to options in order to flex decision-making power. ................................................................................................. 37 1. The illusion of choice and demand for real options ................................................................................... 38 2. Earth-based economy ................................................................................................................................. 40 f. Success stories ..................................................................................................................................... 40 i. SR Boyd’s 2019 Climate Report Annex: Best Practices ..................................................................... 40 ii. Nature Based Solutions - UNESCO, UN-Water; 100 Resilient Cities ................................................ 41 iii. Reinstating indigenous land management .................................................................................... 41 V. Cultural Rights Defenders and Climate Change ..................................................