COP28: Activists urge rights for migrant workers, call for end to killing of Indigenous Peoples

Protesters calling for an end to killings and human rights abuses of Indigenous peoples gathered Sunday (Dec. 10) near the venue of the United Nations climate summit in Dubai.

Indigenous groups around the world are among those most affected by repercussions of the climate crisis, according to information that Anadolu compiled from reports by the UN, UN Development Program (UNDP), and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

“When I think about the communities who are impacted by climate change, when I think about the communities who are impacted by the corporations and industries that have a heavy hand in the negotiations right now, those are frontline communities, people who are dealing with the climate crisis right now, people who are live along the fence line of these polluting industries,” Ozawa Bineshi Albert of the activist with the Climate Justice Alliance says.

“And when I think about what could be if our voices weren’t here, there would be so much more harm that would be happening.”

Human Rights day

Several demonstrations were held on Sunday which marked Human Rights Day. Some activists demonstrate for examplace for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Other protestors urged that climate justice and labour rights, especially those of migrant workers, to be upheld.

“Migrant workers in (the) Middle East are considered second rate citizens. They are not treated properly, there is discrimination against them,” Farooq Tariq, General-Secretary of the Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee, said as he took part in the demonstration.

“They are not given proper wages. They are living on the edges. So we are here to demand equal rights for them, equal democratic rights. They must have a right to citizenship, they must have a right to vote and they must have a right to the equal wages as the local community.”

Earlier in the day in a separate climate protest, several scientists and young people displayed a banner at the COP28 venue, using colour gradients to show how the world temperature has changed from the 1950s to today; with projections for the end of the century.

Negotiators on Sunday were urged to narrow down their options so they can agree on how to save Earth from disastrous levels of warming and help vulnerable societies adapt to weather extremes as the clock runs down on United Nations climate talks.

COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber told journalists that negotiators were “making good progress,” just not fast enough.