Real Media was back at the High Court last week where climate litigation charity Plan B were supporting three student climate activists who are taking the government to court over lack of meaningful climate action. The campaign is also being supported by Stop The Maangamizi.
The hearing, on 25th November was an appeal hearing, following an initial refusal to proceed with litigation served on the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Energy Minister back in May.
The case is being brought by Adetola Onamade, Jerry Amokwandoh, and Marina Tricks, who are young British citizens with family in the Carribean, Afrika, and Latin America, areas which are already experiencing extreme climate destruction and resulting economic breakdown. They allege that the government’s failure to adequately plan is breaching their rights to life, to family life, and the prohibition of discrimination in the enjoyment of those rights – it also breaches the Paris Agreement, and violates international law.
The judgement will be handed down sometime in the coming weeks.
The hearing took place just a week after nine climate protesters were sent to prison by a High Court judge with close family connections to the oil industry, using a controversial private injunction rather than existing laws, and with no right to a jury.
Barrister Paul Powlesland (Garden Court Chambers) said in our weekly YouTube Whats Happening news round-up, that judges are wandering into the political field and are therefore fair game for political critique of their role and what they are doing.
Certainly Adetola and Jerry, interviewed in our film, have no illusions over the legacy of judges and the judiciary, but see this court case as providing an opportunity for them to show they can move away from that legacy and stand with the Global Majority rather than the failing government, or to clearly demonstrate that “these courts are not the courts that are building the future that we need”.
Parallel to the litigation route, the campaign is about resistance and community-building, modelling on successful Pueblos Unidos People’s Tribunals in Mexico that have liberated and emancipated people and their lands. On the last Saturday of every month, Brixton is the site of a Global Majority Artivists Jam where people come together to talk about resistance, solutions, art and community, often with film projections from Mexico. More info at Global Majority Vs Campaign
