Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihood (CSRL), an alliance of local NGOs and civil service organisation, coordinated the shadow “Climate Tribunal”, held 8th Nov, 2010 Monday at the city’s Bangabandhu International Conference Centre. CSRL organised the tribunal, aiming to find ways to safeguard victims of climate change in a legal context. The climate tribunal observed that climate change was responsible for bringing about the misery to these communities dependent on nature, and thus held the Annexe-1 countries (as in Kyoto Protocol), who are large emitters, to be responsible.

A five-member jury panel headed by Bangladesh Human Rights Commission’s chief Mizanur Rahman heard testimonies of four climate victims from different backgrounds, ranging from housewives in cyclone affected coastal regions to fishermen lost at sea and landing up in Indian jails. It also heard from a two experts of climate change and international law in an effort to establish a link between the science of climate change, its national and international legal aspects and the on-going multilateral negotiations.

After hearing testimonies, the jury recommended formulation of a separate law and including an article in the constitution on climate change. The jury ruled that since the developed nations were mostly responsible for the atrocities of climate change, it was their liability to pay for the mitigations. It also observed that the human rights of the coastal area people had been violated by the affects of climate change.

The jury panel consisted of lawmakers Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Tarana Halim, Hasanul Huq Inu and economist Quazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmed.