Climate Change Program

The Sierra Leone Land Alliance has recognized that the climate emergency is “an existential threat to humanity” and that the country has never before seen a threat to human rights on this scale. It is one of several interconnected crises that are driving the country towards environmental breakdown, fundamentally threatening economic, social and cultural rights.

 
Climate change is just one dimension of the larger environmental breakdown. SLLA has decided initially to focus on it but will progressively seek opportunities to tackle threats to biodiversity and land degradation that significantly impair the rights of present and future generations

To protect threatening economic, social and cultural rights now and in the future, SLLA must act swiftly to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation measures), assist people to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change (adaptation measures), and address the losses and damage they generate. Stabilizing the climate while protecting rights holders and communities involves a profound shift in the way we power, manage and organize our societies. We will need to re-conceive the economy and ensure that the transition to low carbon, sustainable societies is guided by human rights principles and gender equality. In the coming years we will build on this work, focusing on:

 
Mitigation and adaptation. We will develop the legal framework and build the capacity of civil society groups and national mechanisms and fora to: use human rights to monitor; fundraise resources; shape policies and legal frameworks to address the climate emergency; and ensure rights holders have access to accountability mechanisms in this context. them into a design that is both beautiful and functional.

Just transition. We will explore the gender and economic, social and cultural rights dimensions of the transition to renewable energy; explicate what a ‘just and equitable transition’ to sustainable low carbon and sustainable societies means, paying particular attention to the needs of women; and articulate responses to inequality in the context of the climate and biodiversity crises 

1. We strengthen the capacity of human rights mechanisms and institutions to respond to the climate emergency and give climate and rights advocates tools and capacity to progress their climate justice demands.
 

We will
 

• Monitor,      analyse and influence the development of national human rights norms on      climate change.
• Build      the capacity of environmental land rights defenders’ mechanisms to address      the climate crisis in their work.
• Strengthen      the capacity of community-based groups to support mitigation and      adaptation and provide tools that enable climate and rights advocates to      use the human rights framework to advance their mitigation and adaptation      demands.
• Increase      the capacity of civil society partners, to advance their climate justice      demands by engaging with land rights defenders and institutions.