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San José, 7 July 2025 – Last week, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) issued its landmark Advisory Opinion on Human Rights and the Climate Emergency, marking a pivotal moment in the global fight for climate justice and human rights. This historic opinion, released on July 3rd, offers the most authoritative legal interpretation to date on the obligations of States in the face of the climate emergency and recognizes the disproportionate harm faced by youth, children, and future generations. Requested by the governments of Chile and Colombia in January 2023, the Advisory Opinion responds to a global groundswell of legal, scientific, and civil society advocacy, including a youth amicus curiae brief coordinated by Fast Action on Climate to Ensure (FACE) Intergenerational Justice and the Center for Human Rights and Environment (CHRE) with world-renowned law firm Hausfeld.
“This Advisory Opinion transforms climate action from political discretion into a legal duty. It offers a concrete path to peace by requiring urgent measures to prevent irreversible tipping points. The first path to peace is to slow the rate of warming in the near term by reducing short-lived climate pollutants,” said Romina Picolotti, Founder of CHRE. “It is a call for governments to listen to science, honor their human rights obligations, and ensure that the burdens of climate change are not disproportionately shifted to future generations.”
Trina Chiemi, FACE Founding Co-Chair, said: “This opinion provides a powerful blueprint for intergenerational climate justice. The Court heard our voices and made it clear that States must act now to keep the planet livable for all.”
The Court unanimously declared that the planet is in a climate emergency and that States have a legal obligation to respond through urgent, effective, and equitable mitigation and adaptation measures rooted in human rights and intergenerational equity. Key conclusions include:
- Explicit recognition of the right to a healthy climate andthe rights of nature. The Court recognized the obligation not to cause irreversible damage to the environment as a jus cogens norm. (Jus cogens refers to a peremptory international law norm.) The human right to a healthy climate includes both an individual and collective dimension to protect the global climate system for both present and future generations. This obligation requires States to take measures to:
- Prevent climate harms by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, protecting nature, and adopting a strategy for sustainable development;
- Apply a stringent due diligence standard to prevent climate harms;
- Actively promote the rights of future generations; and
- Base environmental policy on the best available knowledge, including the best available science and local, traditional, and Indigenous knowledge
- Recognition of differentiated and special obligations towards children and youth based on the principle of equality and non-discrimination, which the Court also previously declared a jus cogens norm. This obligation requires States to adopt positive measures, which include a special duty of protection to:
- Progressively adopt all necessary measures to guarantee youth’s access to health services, systems, and other infrastructure;
- Use the best available science to protect children’s health from climate impacts;
- Guarantee procedural rights and meaningful youth participation;
- Facilitate climate action and refrain from adopting any decision that hinders youth climate activists and environmental defenders from repression or retaliation; and
- Ensure youth have access to justice through effective complaint mechanisms, such as by creating specialized ombudspersons.
The youth amicus brief, endorsed by nearly 30 youth organizations in the region, underscored the essential role of youth participation in climate responses and urged the Court to affirm that youth, children, and future generations are entitled to a livable planet. FACE engaged in extensive outreach to incorporate the voices of youth, including disseminating surveys, hosting listening sessions, and organizing webinars and actions to gather youth demands and stories. In April and May 2024, CHRE and FACE participated in the Inter-American Court’s public hearings in Barbados and Brazil with an intervention that focused on urgent climate action to protect current and future generations.
“This advisory opinion provides not only legal clarity, but also a moral call for the Global South to lead the narrative shift and the actions required to build resilience,” said Laura Serna Mosquera, a climate justice activist who represented FACE at the Barbados hearings. “The Inter-American Court has responded to our call for urgent action—now it is time for all sectors to come together and advance the solutions we all need.”
“This advisory opinion represents a beacon of hope for young people fighting to inherit a planet worth living on,” said Jovana Hoschtialek, an 18-year-old climate advocate from Grenada who also represented FACE at the Barbados hearings.
The Court’s opinion is binding in interpretation and enforceable through the doctrine of “conventionality control,” meaning all members of the Organization of American States—including significant emitters like Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico—must align domestic laws, policies, and judicial decisions with the Court’s interpretation of human rights duties. The ruling is expected to strengthen domestic climate litigation and policymaking across the Americas and the Caribbean, empowering judges, public officials, and advocates to demand compliance with human rights-based climate obligations.
Media Contact: Trina Chiemi (trinachiemi@gmail.com)