CLIMATE CHANGE, NATURAL DISASTERS EXPOSE VULNERABLE SEGMENTS OF SOCIETY: CJ LHC

LAHORE High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah has said that climate change and natural disasters expose the vulnerable segments of society, including women and children, to human traffickers.

Addressing the participants in the Third Asian Judges Symposium on Law, Policy and Climate at Manila, Philippines, he said that human traffickers exploit unprotected segments in the shape of forced labour, forced marriages, prostitution, organs trade and other forms of abuse.

According to a press release issued here on Wednesday, he said that underdeveloped countries like Pakistan were more affected by natural disasters.

He said that millions of people had to leave their homes and vast tracts of lands became barren due to earthquakes in the past years.

He said that the developed countries must come forward to help the developing countries including Pakistan form a policy to deal with such disasters.

The chief justice said that the concepts of climate justice and criminal justice need to be clubbed so as to incorporate the dimension of humantrafficking into the scope of climate justice.

“We need to adapt to climate change, so that we can first avoid human displacement and secondly deal with human displacement by providing pre-disaster assessment,” he added.

The Asian Judges Symposium is a joint venture of the Asian Development Bank and Supreme Court of Philippines, which is attended by senior judges from the UK, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Afghanistan and other Asian countries.