CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT
Climate Justice and Reparations
The countries of the Caribbean have contributed almost nothing to the emissions that cause the global climate crisis, and yet are experiencing—and will experience—some of the most devastating consequences of climate change. The region’s climate vulnerability is not simply a function of geography. It is also a product of colonialism, enslavement, and ongoing extractivism and neocolonial exploitation. Haiti is the exemplary case of intertwined climate and racial injustice, and of the need for reparations to respond to both.
Building on the Global Justice Clinic’s longstanding work resisting mining in Haiti, the Climate Justice and Reparations project works with advocates and social movements to support and advance the struggle for reparations for Haiti. The project also contributes to broader academic and practitioner efforts to ground climate reparations advocacy in racial justice, the colonial roots of the climate crisis, structural transformation, and to support those most affected by climate harms to lead.
GJC carries out community-informed and legal research to advance climate justice and reparations. This research aims to inform movements, advocates and lawyers, contribute to shaping public narrative, and help build the legal case for reparations to Haiti. It includes our report Bay Kou Bliye, Pote Mak Sonje: Climate Injustice In Haiti and the Case for Reparations.
The project supports movement building in Haiti and beyond by developing popular education and legal empowerment resources, and by facilitating workshops and gatherings on climate justice, migrant justice, and reparations.
GJC works with Haitian advocates and organizations to advance movements for reparations and climate justice , including efforts to increase pressure on France to pay restitution for the crippling 1825 “independence ransom” it imposed on a newly independent Haiti. The project also partners with advocates working to address global debt injustice as a necessary component of transformative reparations in Haiti, the Caribbean and beyond, including efforts in New York State to close legislative loopholes that allow so-called “vulture funds” to bring predatory litigation against Global South countries in debt distress.
Bay Kou bliye, Pote Mak Sonje
Climate Injustice in Haiti and the Case for Reparations
A report by the Global Justice Clinic at NYU Law and the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA Law, in collaboration with Haitian social movement organizations, illuminates the crisis of climate injustice in Haiti. It outlines the impacts of climate harms on Haitian people and their human rights, the colonial construction of Haiti’s climate vulnerability, and the legal and moral arguments for reparations to advance both climate and racial justice. It also touches on grassroots efforts in Haiti for climate resilience and to advance land rights, environmental justice, and community self-determination.
Enjistis Klimatik an Ayiti ak Demann pou Reparasyon
Se yon rapò ekri pa Klinik Jistis Mondyal nan Fakilte Dwa NYU ansanm ak Enstiti Promise pou Dwa Moun nan Fakilte Dwa UCLA. Se atrave kolaborasyon ak mouvman sosyal an Ayiti nou reyalize li. Rapò a prezante enpak dega klimatik sou popilasyon Ayisyen epi li montre jan istwa kolonizasyon ak enjistis rasyel kreye vilnerabilite klimatik Ayiti. Li bay egzanp pou montre kouman popilasyon Ayisyen ap degaje yo nan reyalite difisil la, epi li konkli reparasyon se nesese pou jistis klimatik ansanm ak jistis rasyel.
Press highlights
Recent flooding in Port-de-Paix highlights the urgency of climate disorder and its uneven impacts in Haiti
Open Global Rights
Global North actors responsible for Haiti’s climate vulnerability must act to address the worst consequences of climate change.
Press Highlights
Racial justice, climate justice, and reparations: Haiti as an exemplary case
Open Global Rights
Movements for climate justice and movements for reparations for colonial harms can reinforce each other. Haiti’s climate vulnerability speaks to these connections.
Video
Climate Justice and Reparations: Building Strength Across Movements
Webinar
This GJC webinar brought together advocates and organizers working to advance climate justice and reparations from the Caribbean, Latin America and the African Continent to exchange perspectives, explore shared demands and reflect on opportunities for collaboration and mutual reinforcement between advocates for climate reparations and reparations for enslavement and colonialism.
Link forthcoming
