Climate Justice at the ICJ: Human Rights Implications of the Advisory Opinion
By Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, Annalisa Savaresi, Claudia Ituarte-Lima and Corina Heri This blog post was first published on GNHRE (30 August 2025). The International Court of Justice’s landmark Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States with Respect to Climate Change delivered on 23 July 2025 has unequivocally placed human rights at the centre of the applicable law on climate change. With it, the International Court […]
The ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change: A Business and Human Rights Perspective
by Annalisa Savaresi, Professor of International Environmental Law at University of Eastern Finland and Marisa McVey, Lecturer in Law at Queen’s University Belfast This blog post was first published on Opinio Juris (4 August 2025). State obligations in relation to climate change have come under increasing scrutiny by international courts in recent years. In July 2025, it […]
Environmental Procedural Rights at Risk? Inadequate Financial Contributions Threaten to Undermine the Aarhus Convention
Written by Nicola Sharman This article was originally published on Ejil:Talk! From 2-4 July, the Working Group of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention met for the 28th time in the UN Headquarters in Geneva. The agenda featured critical topics such as access to justice, public participation in international forums, the protection of environmental defenders, compliance cases, capacity-building, and possible topics […]
Climate change litigation before the European Court of Human Rights: a new dawn
By Annalisa Savaresi, Professor of International Environmental Law at University of Eastern Finland, Linnéa Nordlander, Assistant Professor of Sustainability, Climate Change, and Human Rights at University of Copenhagen, and Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, Associate Professor of Sustainability Law at University of Amsterdam. First published in the GNHRE blog on 12 April. On 9 April 2024, the European […]
Recognizing the Right to a Healthy Environment at the Council of Europe: Why it matters
By Corina Heri, Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Zurich, Linnéa Nordlander, Assistant Professor at University of Copenhagen, and Annalisa Savaresi, Professor at University of Stirling and Associate Professor, University of Eastern Finland. First published in the GNHRE blog on 5 January 2024. Established in 1949, the Council of Europe (CoE) is the world’s oldest human rights system. It now […]
The way forward for gender-responsive climate adaptation in International Climate Law
By Raihanatul Jannat, PhD Candidate. First published in the FMI’s Climate Bulletin: Research Letters on 21 February 2023 Due to existing multi-dimensional social injustices, some gender groups experience climate change more unduly than others. It is therefore necessary that international climate law is intersectional and gender-responsive. Currently, on one hand, legal provisions developed under the […]
International Climate Technology Transfer : an issue of human rights
By Nicola Sharman, Early Stage Researcher In recent years, the link between climate change and human rights has been increasingly recognised and used as a legal tool to demand stronger action by governments to address the global crisis. However, one element of the international regime in which rights-based arguments remain underutilised is in respect of technology […]
The right to a healthy environment as an environmental grundnorm
By Rosemary Mwanza, PhD Candidate Introduction In the course of my doctoral research, I have often reflected on why the ideal embodied in human rights norms and the present reality always seem so far apart. In dealing specifically with the right to a healthy environment, I have felt that ascendant human rights norms may fail […]
Historic inquiry holds the Carbon Majors accountable for the impacts of climate change in the Philippines
By Annalisa Savaresi, Associate Professor of International Environmental Law and Margaretha Wewerinke Singh, Assistant Professor of Public International Law. First published in the GNHRE blog on 10 May 2022. On 6 May 2022, the Human Rights Commission of the Philippines released the findings of a pathbreaking inquiry into the responsibility for the impacts of climate change […]
The role of human rights in climate litigation: A global review
By Annalisa Savaresi, Associate Professor of International Environmental Law. In recent years, litigation concerning climate change has increasingly invoked human rights. The databases curated by the Sabin Centre for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment show a rising tide of cases ‘pushing the boundaries’ of […]