CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN RIGHTS

AN OVERWIEW OF INTERNATIONAL CASE LAW

Abstract

Climate change in recent decades has increasingly affected various aspects of human life. Rising sea levels, extreme weather conditions such as heat waves and heavy rains, resulting in drought, forest fires and floods, lead to complex socioeconomic consequences and threats to fundamental human rights. Sea level rise due to climate change directly affects coastal and island states and indirectly almost all states in the world. Climate change affects human health, the availability of resources (especially drinking water and food) and, consequently, migration. These changes particularly affect poor and vulnerable groups due to their reduced ability to adapt to new circumstances. Climate change threatens the right to life, the right to adequate food and water, the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, the right to adequate housing, the right to cultural identity, etc. The problems and challenges caused by climate change have led to the adoption of international treaties that regulate this matter, such as the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the 2015 Paris Agreement. Due to the significant impact of climate change on the respect for human rights, but also due to the lack of effective international legal mechanisms of international treaties relating to climate change, individual complaints are increasingly being filed before international human rights treaty bodies. This includes UN human rights treaty bodies such as the Committee on Human Rights, as well as regional bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The paper provides an overview of the relevant international legal framework and (quasi)judicial practice in the area of climate change impact on human rights. The authors place a special emphasis on the advisory proceedings before various international courts and relevant case law of the human rights treaty bodies.