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GLOBAL NEWS Campaigners in Pakistan have called for debt cancellation and climate reparations following the devastating floods which left more than one-third of the country under water in August. At least 1,300 people were killed, more than 50 million were displaced from their homes, and up to $10 billion of damage was caused to Pakistan’s economy.

Pakistan is facing some of the worst consequences of the accelerating climate crisis, despite producing less than 1% of global carbon emissions. Yet global south calls for ‘loss and damage’ for countries bearing the brunt of climate change impacts continue to be resisted at UN climate talks.

GLOBAL MOVEMENT NEWS

In the aftermath of the floods, the IMF issued Pakistan with a new $1.1 billion loan, but the country continues to face annual debt payments of more than $13 billion. As Farooq Tariq of the Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee wrote: “Without debt relief or funding to compensate for loss and damage, Pakistan’s cycle of debt and climate crises is only set to worsen.”

Call for climate reparations following Pakistan super-floods

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A solidarity protest in the Philippines in September.

Mass protests over Rwanda deportation plan

Migrant rights campaigners took part in dozens of protests around the UK this summer over the government’s controversial plans to deport people seeking asylum to Rwanda. Global Justice Now joined protests outside detention centres in Heathrow and Yarl’s Wood, as well as the Home Office.

The Rwanda plan deepens the UK’s hostile environment for migrants by criminalising people seeking asylum for their method of travel to the UK. For the vast majority of refugees, there are no safe routes to apply for asylum from outside the UK, forcing people to take dangerous options like crossing the Channel.

The first Rwanda deportation flight was due to take place in July but was blocked until a High Court legal challenge has concluded. The case, which heard that the UNHCR does not consider Rwanda to be a safe country to send asylum seekers to, took place in September and a verdict is expected later in the autumn.

NEWS SHORTS

Walden Bello vows to resist charges of ‘cyber libel’

World-renowned author and activist Walden Bello has vowed to resist spurious charges of cyber libel against him after his arrest in the Philippines in August. Bello ran for vice-president in May against the daughter of former president Rodrigo Durtete, who he criticised online for failing to take part in a televised debate.

Antigua expected to vote on becoming a republic

The prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda announced that the country will hold a referendum on becoming a republic within three years, following the Queen’s death in September. The Caribbean country is one of 14 to retain the British monarch as their head of state. It follows Barbados becoming a republic in November.

Australia scraps planned coal mine

The new Australian government blocked the development of the Central Queensland coal mine in August as it introduced a stronger 2030 emissions reduction target, but declined to back amendments ruling out any new coal, oil or gas projects. Up to 26 further new coal mines are due to be decided on in the country.

Global demands for Egypt to release political prisoners ahead of COP27

International human rights and climate justice groups have called for the Egyptian government to release thousands of political prisoners ahead of the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh in November, amid fears that the conference will be used to whitewash Egypt’s human rights abuses.

The Egyptian government of President Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi came to power in a military coup in 2013, and there are an estimated 65,000 political prisoners in the country, including British-Egyptian activist Abd El Fattah, who has been on hunger strike for months. “It’s hard to imagine that any significant progress can be made towards climate justice at a conference hosted by one of the world’s most repressive regimes, whose prisons are full of its brightest thinkers, youth activists and defeated idealists,” said Abd El Fattah’s sister Sanaa Seif.

The government has also been criticised for operating a closed application process for Egyptian NGOs to attend the summit, while protests will only be allowed in a designated protest area.

Chile to continue fight to replace Pinochet’s constitution

© Alberto Valdes/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Chileans march in support of the new constitution in Santiago ahead of the referendum in September.

Social movements in Chile have vowed to continue the fight to replace the country’s constitution, after a proposed new one was defeated in a referendum in September. 62% of voters rejected the change after an extraordinary mobilisation by business and conservative groups against it.

The existing constitution dates back to the rule of western-backed dictator Augusto Pinochet. 80% of Chileans voted in favour of replacing that constitution in 2021, following mass protests over growing inequality.

The proposed constitution, drafted by an elected assembly over the last year, would have enshrined rights to free healthcare and education, access to housing, as well as gender equality and environmental protection. It would also have given Indigenous peoples a stronger status by recognising Chile as a plurinational state, like Bolivia. A further process to revise or redraft a new constitution is now expected to be convened by Chile’s leftist president Gabriel Boric.