In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Climate Change

29 Jul

[Fia Hamid-Walker is a PhD candidate in disaster jurisprudence and postcolonial theory at Melbourne Law School and human rights lawyer] Disaster means a calamitous event or series of events resulting in widespread loss of life, great human suffering and distress, mass displacement, or large-scale material or environmental damage, thereby seriously disrupting the functioning of societyArticle 3(b) of the Draft Articles on...

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28 Jul

[Sude Kınık is a senior law student at Galatasaray University] Introduction The ECtHR’s landmark judgment in Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland, (“Klimaseniorinnen”) marks a significant moment in the judicialization of environmental protection through human rights frameworks. A key feature of this judgment is how the Court addressed the “drop in the ocean” argument—a common state defense in climate litigation aiming...

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22 Jul

[Erard de Schaetzen is pursuing a masters in public international law at Utrecht University] In March 2023, Vanuatu’s initiative led the UN General Assembly to adopt a Resolution requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on defining States’ obligations regarding climate change, and the legal consequences arising from their breach. Since then, proceedings before the “World Court”...

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12 Feb

[Paula Wojcikiewicz Almeida holds a PhD summa cum laude in International and European Law at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. She is a Professor of International Law at FGV Rio Law and Director of FGV Rio Law's Centre for Global Law and the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on EU-LA Global Challenges. Valentine Tissot Pinheiro holds an LL.M. in Public International Law...

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06 Feb

[Mamta Borgoyary is an Executive Director at SHE Changes Climate] I believe that 2025 will mark the beginning of a paradigm shift in social transformation, guiding us towards a world that is rooted in justice, compassion and equity. The adoption of the  General Recommendation 40 (GR40) by CEDAW, represents a pivotal step toward elevating women’s participation in historically underrepresented critical spaces,...

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01 Aug

[Eoin Jackson is a PHD Candidate at LSE] At present, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) is considering its Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency and Human Rights. The proceedings follow on the heels of the landmark European Court of Human Rights decision in KlimaSeniorinnen v Switzerland, where the Court issued a declaratory judgment that the human rights of the...

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31 May

[Lucas Carlos Lima is a professor of international law at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais] It was expected that the advisory opinion on the climate emergency and human rights requested by the Republic of Colombia and the Republic of Chile to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (‘IACtHR’ or ‘Court’) would attract a high level of participation. While the 2017 Advisory...

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25 May

[Patricio Trincado Vera is a Research Assistant at the Transboundary Legal Studies Department at Groningen University.] March 2024 was a month with significant advances in the area of human rights and environmental protection on a regional level. The European Court of Human Rights has been at the centre of the debate with the three judgements on climate change and environmental issues...

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05 Feb

[Alexandra L Phelan is a global health lawyer, Senior Scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, and an Associate Professor (PAR) in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.] In October 2023, editors from over 200 medical journals published a call for the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the environmental crisis...

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27 Nov

[Rafsi Albar is an undergraduate student, teaching assistant, and researcher at the Faculty of Law, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. He is an editor at Juris Gentium Law Review, the country’s foremost student-run publication.] A few days ago, Opinio Juris published a post by a dear colleague of mine, Nivia. There, she addressed how my proposition on the use of a New...

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23 Nov

[Maria Liana Vodiţă is a legal professional from Germany who has worked as a research assistant and lecturer at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), where she also completed her doctorate in public international law. This contribution was written whilst she was working as a legal clerk (Rechtsreferendarin) at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights in...

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26 Oct

[Eoin Jackson (LLM Harvard, LLB Trinity College Dublin)] All views are entirely the author's own and do not necessarily represent any organization that the author may be associated with. In recent years there has been increased recognition that the climate emergency will have a disproportionate impact on minorities. We have seen an acknowledgement that climate change will have a gendered impact, a focus on the...

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