- A question from @diarmuidtorney.bsky.social on government's climate performance. "The rhetoric often doesn't match the reality" says UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders @marylawlorhrds.bsky.social, as she encourages climate activists to be "a crowbar in the system" #DCUClimate2025Apr 29, 2025 09:19
- Question from the audience: Why does the UN not set targets of zero growth and zero inflation? A: In its member-state system, “you are never going to get the UN acting in the common good as a singular force. It just won’t happen… The UN system is not designed in that kind of way” #DCUClimate2025
- In response to a question around the defence of human rights in Ireland, @marylawlorhrds.bsky.social warns that we should not take our rights for granted: “I don’t think we can be complacent at all in Ireland". #DCUClimate2025
- A powerful question from the floor, on how to effectively campaign. In line with our conference theme of activism, storytelling and the arts, @marylawlorhrds.bsky.social highlights storytelling, making the narrative “more accessible” to the wider public #DCUClimate2025
- Dr Harriet Fildes, Head of the Scottish Human Rights Defender Fellowship @dundee.ac.uk, points out the role universities can play in training and supporting environmental defenders to write grants, collect data and build networks #DCUClimate2025
- Dr Walt Kilroy from @dublincityuni.bsky.social School of Law and Government also stresses the agency of human rights defenders themselves: "we need to listen to them". At the same time, we can be on-hand to offer support: "activism can come at an enormous emotional cost" #DCUClimate2025
