UN Council Resolution on Human Right to Healthy Environment: Implications for US Grassroots-Led ‘Non-Reformist Reforms’
Image description: Protesters with a banner saying ‘We are the people’s climate movement’. In a long-awaited victory, the UN Human Rights Council recently recognised, for the first time, that having...
Emerging from the COVID 19 Pandemic: What role for the Forgotten Right to Continuous Improvement of Living Conditions in the ICESCR?
As the world confronts the devastating impact of the COVID pandemic it must tackle the thorny related problems of increasing economic inequality – within countries and between them – as...
Between Cross-Border Obligations and Domestic Remedies: The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s decision on Sacchi v Argentina (Part 2)
This is the second post evaluating Sacchi v Argentina. The first post in this series can be found here. A longer version of these arguments can be found at the...
Between Cross-Border Obligations and Domestic Remedies: The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s decision on Sacchi v Argentina (Part 1)
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has delivered its long-awaited admissibility decision on Sacchi et al v. Argentina et al. The case results from a communication submitted...
Human Rights-Based Climate Litigation in Latin America
As in other regions of the Global South, groups and individuals in Latin America have engaged in litigation to counter environmental harm threatening the enjoyment of their human rights. Climate...
IEA v Brazil: Rights-Based Climate Litigation to Protect the Brazilian Amazon
“[C]limate stability is a new social need, essential to the preservation of human life and ecological balance.” (IEA v. Brazil, Complaint at 45) Deforestation of the Amazon is not a...
Grappling with Danger: Some Lessons from Urgenda v The Netherlands
The landmark judgement of the Dutch Supreme Court in Urgenda Foundation v State of the Netherlands has inspired climate cases across the globe, where litigants argue that States are required...
Youth Led Litigation Highlights the Intergenerational Impact of Climate Change
The impact of dangerous climate change on our children and future generations has been highlighted by campaigns around the world such as Fridays for Future, which grew out of Greta...
Irish Supreme Court quashes climate mitigation plan: environmental rights caught between redundancy and vagueness
On 31 July 2020, the Irish Supreme Court annulled the government’s climate mitigation plan. A grand chamber of – exceptionally – seven judges ruled unanimously that the plan did not...
Where are the human rights in the green economy transition?
The emergence of a green economy during the COVID-19 crisis presents a significant opportunity for the commercialisation of low-carbon solutions that catalyses an important emerging market, incentivising investors and governments...
How Our Clicks Cost the Planet: The Internet, Climate Change, and Human Rights (with Michael Oghia)
Covid-19 lockdowns worldwide have forced huge portions of our lives online, from education to work, with important human rights ramifications. But there’s an argument to be made that the Covid-19...
Environmental protection of children’s right to life: ICCPR General Comment 36
As the indivisibility of human rights and environmental protection solidifies as a norm of international human rights law, children are increasingly claiming their right to environmental protection under domestic constitutions...
