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...
Canada’s Failure: Climate Change and International Human Rights
“While I was breathing in wildfire smoke last month with Vancouver’s air quality rated worst in the world, Canadian government lawyers were preparing arguments to silence me.” This statement was...
Human Rights Violations in Paradise: Lakshadweep’s Draft Regulations and their Potential Consequences on the Indigenous Tribal Populace
Recently, the administrator of India’s Lakshadweep islands, Praful Khoda Patel, introduced a slew of draft regulations, which have resulted in stern resentment from the indigenous population residing on the islands....
What’s Next in Climate Litigation: The World’s Youth for Climate Justice Campaign for an Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice
What was once a “turn” in climate litigation, has now become its central driving force. This series has documented some of the ground-breaking climate and human rights decisions in Courts...
Climate Change and Fundamental Freedoms: The German Constitutional Court Orders Legislature to Rectify Climate Change Law
On March 24, 2021, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany held certain provisions of the 2019 Federal Climate Change Act (‘KSG’) to be incompatible with their rights under the German...
Climate Claims Before the UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies
Each of the major UN human rights treaties establishes a treaty body, a body of independent experts that oversees compliance of the treaty by the States that are party to...
Milieudefensie v Shell: Holding Carbon Majors Accountable for Human Rights Violations
“It is clear that the global climate crisis will worsen, with devastating implications for human rights, unless society changes direction.” […] “Corporations should comply with the Guiding Principles on Business...
The Success and Remaining Challenges of French Climate Litigation
Notre affaire à tous is a French environmental NGO founded in 2015 inspired by the ground-breaking Urgenda judgement. Its purpose was to initiate similar litigation in France. Hence, we lodged...
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...
