[imc-presse] [Cja-press] Climate No Borders Activists to Target Ministry of Defence in Copenhagen

[Climate Justice Action: latest news]

Press Release

Climate No Borders

Friday 11th December, 2009

climatenoborders at gmail.com

Tel: (0045) 52686496

www.climatenoborders.wordpress.com



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



ACTIVISTS TO TARGET DANISH MINISTRY OF DEFENCE TO HIGHLIGHT FATE OF CLIMATE
REFUGEES

As part of the range of actions during the UN COP15 Climate Summit in
Copenhagen, activists have designated Dec 14th the ‘No Borders! No Climate
Refugees!” Day of Action. As such, the international network, *No
Borders,*is organizing an action targeting the Danish Ministry of
Defence as a symbol
of the military role in creating refugees and enforcing repressive border
regimes.

At 11am on the 14th of December activists will gather in Israel Plads,
Vesterbrogade, before marching to the Danish Ministry of Defence at
Holmenskanal 42. There will be speakers from different campaigns, bands from
across the world, two sound systems, and a no borders performance piece.  We
will open their offices to the weather they are changing and to the people
they lock out, so that the voices of all those disempowered by the COP15
process and border regime can be heard! (1)

This protest comes at a time when global economic policies and war are
causing mass global displacement, while the effects of climate change will
be a major cause of further mass migration from the poorest regions of the
earth, on a scale we have never seen.

At the Kilma Forum today at the launch of the ‘International Campaign on
Climate Refugees’ Rights’  indigenous people from across the globe called
for an opening of the borders in the face of increasing climate chaos, a
demand for climate justice, and most importantly, the rights of freedom of
movement, and the right to stay in their homes without the threat of climate
change, or the impacts of globalization and neo-liberal policies. (2)

Lars says “Rather than dealing with the problem, governments around the
world are instead employing increasing levels of division through heightened
border control, whilst failing to confront the root cause – capitalism - and
then further militarizing the globe by selling arms to anyone with the money
to buy them.”

Mette Hagolani says “We will take action in solidarity with those who are
already displaced by the immediate effects of climate change (3), wars for
resources and the false market led ´solutions´ proposed by those with the
loudest voices in the COP15 process.  We demand social change and reject
increased repression and racist border controls (4),”

ENDS

Contact for further comment,

climatenoborders at gmail.com

Tel: (0045) 52686496

www.climatenoborders.wordpress.com



Notes to Editor

(1)    . No Borders No Borders supports the call of the CJA to promote and
strengthen the rights and voices of Indigenous and affected peoples
(including workers) in confronting the climate crisis, and to build a global
movement for climate justice that encourages urgent action to avoid
catastrophic climate change.

(2)    The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) states: “Everyone
has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of
each State. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own,
and return to his country.”

(3)     In 2007, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned
that an increase in sea levels of just 18 to 59 centimetres (seven to 24
inches) would make the Maldives virtually uninhabitable by 2100, and other
Small Island States face a similar fate.  The finance minister for
Bangladesh, Abdul Muhith has called for the UN to give Climate Refugees the
same status as migrants fleeing political persecution. "Twenty million
people could be displaced [in Bangladesh] by the middle of the century.  We
are asking all our development partners to honour the natural right of
persons to migrate. We can't accommodate all these people – this is already
the densest [populated] country in the world," he said.  See
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/30/rich-west-climate-change .

(4)  Increased legislation such as the “The Stockholm Program”, which was
recently passed in Brussels, will foster more surveillance of the internet,
common access to European police databases and more cross-border police
collaboration to fight "illegal migration".  For photographs of the most
recent protest see http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=461 .  It will force
countries outside the EU to take back their citizens who enter the EU
without a visa and it will push the use of biometrics and radio-frequency
identification (RfiD) and enlargement of the police agency Europol and the
EU border watchdog Frontex (which conducts migrant hunting operations,
trains border guards and special units to hunt down people crossing borders,
and helps to coordinate and standardize EU immigration surveillance and
control policies) and its military wing RABIT (Rapid Border Intervention
Teams).  The Program also promotes the increasing use of hi-tech military
equipment such as airborne early warning planes,  'unmanned autonomous
drones' in the UK, and naval ships off the west Coast of Africa as well as
the payment of millions of Euros to African countries to build and house
internment camps to help manage migration to the EU. The recent Danish Prime
Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen is now the leader of NATO. He has been
pushing for 'security crackdowns' and reinforcement of fortress Europe to
prevent migration from places more immediately effected by elite-caused
climate change. On the Franco-English border in Calais repression escalates
against migrants everyday with both countries attempting to create a
´migrant free zone´by the end of 2009.  see
www.calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com.




-- 
Climate Justice Action - media team.
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