If not here, where . If not us, who . Amy as hundreds of activists say no to the draft paris accord, well speak with kumi naidoo of greenpeace and asad rehman of friends of the earth. And its International Human rights day. Well speak with Mary Robinson, the former u. N. High commissioner for human rights, and former president of ireland. Response toustice the moral argument, both sides of the moral argument, to address Climate Change. First of all, to be on the side of those who are suffering most and are most affected. And secondly, to make sure that theyre not left behind again when we start to move and start to address Climate Change with climate action. Amy and journalist Antonia Juhasz on her newsweek article, suicidal tendencies how saudi arabia could kill the cop21 negotiations in paris. This is climate countdown. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The gunman in the planned parenthood shooting rampage has admitted his guilt while expressing antichoice views. At a Court Hearing where he was charged with 179 counts, john dear acknowledged attacking the clinic, calling himself a warrior for the babies. To protect the babies. The babies who are supposed to be born that day, could you add that to the list . Amy the attack in Colorado Springs killed three people and left nine wounded. Defense attorneys have suggested they may seek an insanity defense. Prochoice activists have called for the Obama Administration to treat the attack as domestic terrorism. The fbi says the couple behind the San Bernardino shooting massacre were radicalized years before meeting in person and before the rise of the selfproclaimed islamic state. Fbi director james comey told a Senate Hearing that the agency believes suspects syed farook and Tashfeen Malik were inspired by foreign extremists, but that no evidence has emerged that isil or other groups ordered the attack. Muslimamericans continue to report risings acts of islamophobia in the aftermath of the paris and San Bernardino attacks and increased antimuslim sentiment on the campaign trail. A muslim store owner in queens, new york said he was beaten by , an attacker who reportedly said, i kill muslims. Other incidents include racist hate speech directed at two muslim women in an austin cafe, and a group of boys punching a muslim girl in new york and pulling on her hijab. At a rally on wednesday against Donald Trumps call to ban muslims from entering the u. S. , khalid latif of the Islamic Center at New York University said antimuslim racism today could be even worse than after 9 11. Speakthese voices unchecked, we see a rise in antimuslim sentiment, there is arguably worse than even the backlash experience immediately after september 11, to give rise and justified to those who in recent weeks have burned down in vandalized mosques all over this country, who have pushed down women wearing headscarves onto train tracks, shot cab drivers, and even in our own city, validated for three young men there beating of a six grade muslim girl in harlem as they punched her, beat her, try to rip the scarf off of her head, and culture isis over and over and over. That is not ok. We have to be better than that. Amy chicago mayor rahm emanuel has apologized for the more than ofr old Police Killing 17yearold laquan mcdonald. Than yearold Police Killing of 17yearold laquan mcdonald. Emanuel spoke at a City Council Hearing on wednesday. I am the mayor. As i said the other day, i own it. I take responsibility for what happens because it happened on my watch. And were going to fix it. I want you to understand it is my responsibility with you. But if we are also going to begin the healing process, the first step in that journey is my step. And im sorry. Mayorry manual emanuel is facing increasing pressure to step down over the citys handling of the case and a potential coverup. Protesters marched in the streets and staged a sitin to demand his resignation. It doesnt mean our work is over. Getting him to resign means our work is still getting started. We got one down and two to go. We have two to go. It is sad that these people are in the office and they cant do their jobs. But you know what . Rahm emanuel, you can fire all of these people, but you still will not get our vote because youre going to be out of office by election day. Amy this comes as chicago has released a threeyearold video tape of officers tasing, beating and dragging africanamerican , philip coleman. Coleman died in police custody, although the city claims it was , from an allergic reaction. Mayor rahm emanuel has said the abuse was unacceptable. Colemans family says it wants the officers involved charged with crimes. The Supreme Court has heard arguments in a case that could threaten affirmative action on college campuses. The petitioner, abigail fisher, is a white woman who accused the university of texasaustin of discrimination for rejecting her. On wednesday, a majority of justices appeared to indicate they will come down against the university of texas affirmative action policies, a stance that could ultimately threaten similar plans at other schools. Justice Antonin Scalia sparked outrage after saying that students of color with low grades are pushed into schools that are too fast for them and may be better off at a less advanced school, a slowertrack school where they do well, he said. The pentagon has asked the white house to build up a series of u. S. Military bases across africa, southwest asia and the , middle east. The New York Times reports top military officials want the network of bases to serve as hubs for special operations troops and intelligence operatives who could conduct Counterterrorism Missions against groups like the islamic state, ensuring an enduring American Military presence in several regions overseas. The pentagon, meanwhile, says its prepared to send military advisers and helicopters to help iraq retake ramadi, which was captured by isil in may. Meanwhile, iraq has asked nato to pressure turkey into withdrawing its forces from northern iraqi areas. Turkish forces recently arrived near mosul, but turkey says its there at the request of the iraqi government. The Syrian Government and rebel forces have completed a rare negotiated truce in the opposition stronghold of homs. Hundreds of rebels and civilians left homs on wednesday as part of an agreement to end fighting that devastated the city for years. The evacuees will be resettled in other rebelheld areas of northern syria. Doctors without borders has delivered a petition to the white house demanding an independent probe of the u. S. Bombing of the groups hospital in kunduz, afghanistan. The october 3 airstrike killed at least 30 people and wounded dozens more. At a rally across from the white house, Doctors Without Borders board president Deane Marchbein paid tribute to the attack victims. 6000 patients have been treated at our hospital since it opened in 2011. Now hundreds of thousands are cut off from lifesaving care. The patients who were killed to lead they had come to a safe place who were killed believe they come to us a place to be treated. They could not have imagined they instead would become targets. Tove individuals committed providing health care for all. Amy and the Tunisian National dialogue quartet has dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to every single tunisian. We would like to thank the Norwegian Nobel Committee for having bestowed upon us the quartet of this very prestigious prize. It is a prize awarded to every single tunisian, to the people who lost martyrs, awarded in memory of all of the martyrs who sacrificed their blood in service of liberty. It comes in recognition of the major sacrifice paid in blood. The tunisian human rights league. One of the Civil Society groups that make up the quartet. He spoke wednesday before todays oslo nobel ceremony. The Nobel Committee says the prize at six to honor the quartets contribution to building a pluralistic democracy after the 2011 tunisian revolution which toppled tunisias longtime u. S. Backed dictator. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Were broadcasting from the u. N. Climate change summit in paris, france, cop21. Its International Human rights day. It commemorates the day on which the United NationsGeneral Assembly adopted the universal declaration of human rights in 1948. Earlier today, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to tunisias National Dialogue quartet for helping achieve a peaceful transition to democracy in their own country. Well, we begin todays show looking at Climate Change as a human rights issue. Here at the talks, negotiators have been debating how human right should be addressed in the paris accord. The United States, norway, and saudi arabia have been criticized by for seeking to eliminate key references to human rights in the text. We are joined by former irish president Mary Robinson, who is also the former u. N. High commissioner for human rights. In 2010, she set up the Mary RobinsonFoundation Climate justice. President Mary Robinson, welcome back to democracy now amy, and happy International Human rights day. Amy talk about how human rights relates to Climate Change and Climate Justice. Absolutely a relates to Climate Change because Climate Change is undermining human rights all over the world. And undermining peoples livelihoods, undermining peoples health, forcing people to leave their homes because of drought or flooding. Itn, causing loss of life is having a very negative impact and that is being recognized at the human rights council. Even if there were stepping in this agreement which i hope there will be about human rights, human rights is there anyway, very, very central to our approach to Climate Change. To me, it is the biggest human right issue in the world. Amy how did you come to this issue of Climate Justice . Certainly did not make a centerpiece when you are the u. N. High commissioner for human rights. Ive been very open and modest about that. No, i didnt. It was being dealt with in another part of the u. N. A little bit of a silo approach. I started work on economic and social rights in africa. Everywhere i went, people said, things are so much worse. And i realized they meant the rainy seasons werent coming in liberia the way they used to and there was long periods of droughts and flash flooding in uganda. Peoplerywhere i went, saw something that they had never seen before. World tradition, more than 200 years, because people pass stories on. It was so much worse, climate shocks, climate disruptions. I thought in bangladesh when i went there. I realized when i read the signs, we are running out of time. Actually, as has been said often now during this year, were the first generation of fully understand the dangers of Climate Change in the last generation with time to do something about it. And that time is now here in paris. Amy you were the president of ireland. We saw the big family photo, the first two days of this cop were you had more than 100 World Leaders, about 130 world leader standing together, the largest gathering of World Leaders in the history of the world. There were not many women. Can you talk about why that matters . It matters hugely that we have more women in leadership roles and leadership happens at all levels, but it is good that you have top leaders because they influence the policy of their country and they influence priorities. They decide what will be as a priority of the country. There are women and supportive men who are been working for years in the climate context to try to ensure human rights and gender equality are fully recognized because they are important to good climate policy. Amy what does gender equality have to do with Climate Change . Huge impacts. If you underline for livelihoods, who will pick up the pieces . Who will put food on the table . Those who are trying to adapt and be resilient, the vast majority of farmers in the developed world are women. It is usually important that the gender dimensions are recognized , both the fact that women are more vulnerable because even in natural disasters, therefore times more likely to die than men 14 times, because they care about their children and try to help them. They cant run very fast and long clothing. Ive a right of reasons. Amy i want to ask you a question. On wednesday, there was a major protest year last night. Democracy now s Amy Littlefield got a chance to speak afterwards law and director of the policy program at amnesty international. He talked about the status of human rights and the current draft of the climate accord. Know the moment, we dont if states are going to accept them, so there is still a debate over whether to keep them in the part of the text where it is about how they are applied throughout. Were a bit worried because gender equality has just been dropped from the same provision, and we think that is a tradeoff, where some states agreed to drop gender equality in order to drop the reference to the rights of occupied peoples living in the occupation. Could you explain which states youre talking about . Saudi arabia is one country that we are talking about, which opposed which insisted there must be language about the rights of people under occupation. The United States and others oppose that. As a result, they traded where the gender equality was taken out to make the saudis happy in the rights of occupied people was taken out to keep the United States and other states happy. Have amnesty you international, president robinson, your response . Them. Gree with neither human rights nor gender equality are secure in the text. Human rights is still in the operative art, which is important but it is in brackets and could go. Amy what does brackets mean . It means it is not a great. If it is not in brackets, that is text that has been agreed. There are still a lot of brackets. Gender equality, for reasons we dont understand, was dropped. Protection of human rights and promotion of gender equality. Obviously, i want both because they are extremely important. Amy is sounds like saudi arabia did one gender equality and the u. S. Did not want referenced occupied people. Maybe. There are a lot of negotiations going on. I think a lot of countries one gender equality back in, so we are not at the end. I think it is more important that we see white support. Ive just come from a roomful of people, including a number of ministers and delegates, who are supportive of both human rights and gender equality. They see them as being very much part of the Core Principles of the United Nations. And the reason we want this language not just to see the words, the recently want the language is the values that are behind those words and the importance for good climate policy. We have made mistakes. You remember the corn for ethanol driving up food prices for poor people . Ams that displaced people with poor land rights. There will be a rush for Renewable Energy. Unless we make sure it is done responsibly and in accordance with human rights principles, we could have more people affected by how we take action on climate who are already suffering from Climate Change. Amy as president of ireland, you are part of the divesting from south africa, the apartheid regime. There is this move around the world, and you have a foundation, whether in companies, universities to divest from fossil fuels. What i always say, i support the movement, but i say to vest from fossil fuels and invest in Renewable Energy. Otherwise, youre not moving that equation fast enough. We need more investment in Renewable Energy and in r d and we definitely need countries and companies to get out of coal. That is the worst. We also need to leave two thirds of the fossil fuel in the ground. We have a paper of my foundation, zero carbon, zero poverty. Way. Limate justice we say we have to get out of carbon by 2050. The interesting thing, just to show you there is a Business Group here and a lot of Business Year that is more progressive. There is a team im linked to through the fact i am an elder, getting on, elder brother together by