In March 2023, the United Nations General Assembly requested an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on states’ responsibilities under international law to protect the climate system for current and future generations. The Court’s Opinion is expected to clarify the content and scope of human rights obligations and their implications for state responsibility. While this may seem unprecedented, regional human rights courts – the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) – have already begun shaping a legal narrative that frames climate change as both an environmental and human rights issue. Their jurisprudence provides critical precedents that the ICJ may draw upon. This post examines how these regional developments might inform the ICJ’s analysis, particularly regarding emerging doctrines of extraterritorial responsibility that aim to integrate environmental and human rights law in addressing the climate crisis. What the ICJ Has Been Asked to Clarify The ICJ has been asked to address two critical questions. First, what are states’ obligations under…
Inter-American Court of Human Rights
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From the Right to be Consulted to the Right to No Contact: The Inter-American Court Faces Its First Case on Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation
Yesterday, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights published a landmark ruling in the case of Pueblos Indígenas Tagaeri y Taromenane v. Ecuador, the first case in its 45-year history to address the rights of Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation. The case concerns Ecuador’s international responsibility for the violation of…
Political Will: The Missing Ingredient in Protecting the Environment and Environmental Defenders
The Escazú Agreement – a groundbreaking treaty that integrates human rights with environmental matters – is the first legally binding agreement of its kind in Latin America and the Caribbean. Nevertheless, South America is currently engulfed in a crisis. Massive deforestation and climate change are causing wildfires to spread over millions of…
Peru at a Crossroad: The New Impunity Law
In the last decades, Peru has undergone two significant transitions: one following the internal armed conflict of the 1980s and 1990s, initiated by the terrorist organisation Peruvian Communist Party Shining Path (SL), and another after the authoritarian rule from 1992 to 2000. While the SL was the main perpetrator of violence, state-led counter-subversive measures were…
People from La Oroya vs Peru, Inter-American Court of Human Rights: How Effective is International Law to Protect the Environment in Extractive Contexts?
On March 22nd, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled a landmark decision on the protection of the right to a healthy environment in the context of mining activities. The Court declared the international responsibility of the Peruvian State for breaching the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights, specifically for violations of the right to a…
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