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- Request for an advisory opinion on the human rights obligations of African states in addressing the climate crisis
Request for an advisory opinion on the human rights obligations of African states in addressing the climate crisis
Geography
International
Year
2025
Document Type
Litigation
About this case
Filing year
2025
Status
Pending
Geography
International
Court/admin entity
International Courts & Tribunals → African Court on Human and People's Rights
Case category
Advisory Opinions (Global)
Principal law
International Law → African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights
At issue
The petition requests an Advisory Opinion from the African Court to clarify the human rights obligations of African states in addressing the climate crisis. It focuses on protecting vulnerable populations and ensuring equitable climate action.
Topics
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Documents
Filing Date
Document
Type
Topics
Beta
Search results
04/01/2026
Amicus brief by Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA) on climate change and human rights.
Other
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03/31/2026
Amicus brief by Professors Tracy-Lynn Field & Zunaida Moosa Wadiwala, on behalf of Mandela Institute, School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand. The brief addresses States' obligations in respect of climate change, including Peoples' rights under Articles 21, 22, 23 and 24 of the African Charter.
Other
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03/31/2026
Amicus brief by Maria Jose Alarcon Santillan (Solicitor Attorney at Law, Consultant and Of Counsel in International Law and Climate Litigation) on State responsibility for climate change and apportioning reparations.
Other
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03/31/2026
Amicus brief by Professor Craig Hutton (University of Southampton, UK), Kwasi Appeaning Addo (University of Ghana), Laurence Canning (University of Oxford, UK), Gracie Horton (University of Southampton, UK), Professor Emma Tompkins (University of Southampton, UK), and Dina Lupin (University of Southampton, UK) on the impact of climate change on the human rights of coastal communities in Africa.
Other
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03/30/2026
Amicus brief by Fernand Guevara Mekongo Mballa (Doctorol candidate of Catholic University of Central Africa) on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities
Other
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03/30/2026
Amicus brief by International Lawyers Assisting Workers Network & International Trade Union Confederation on the impacts of climate change on Africa's workforce.
The impacts are manifested in at least three interconnected ways:
i) the displacement of employment through the decline of carbon-intensive industries;
ii) the erosion of livelihoods in climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture;and
iii) the intensification of occupational safety and health (OSH) risks for workers across a wide range of industries and settings.
Other
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03/30/2026
Amicus brief by Environmental and Natural Resources Law Master’s Students of University College Cork (UCC) on the legal framework governing state obligations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Charter) and other relevant instruments.
Other
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03/30/2026
Amicus brief by Land is Life examining State obligations under the African Charter in the context of climate change, emphasizing the disproportionate impacts on Indigenous Peoples and the need to recognize their rights and knowledge systems in climate governance.
Other
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03/30/2026
Amicus brief by Lena Riemer, Andrea Maria Pelliconi, and Luca Scheid, examiningthe human rights obligations of States in addressing climate-induced displacement, with a particular focus on the protection of affected individuals and communities under African and international legal frameworks, including the non-refoulement principle, the refugee definition, cooperation and responsibility sharing.
Other
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03/30/2026
Written observation by International Network on Climate Change, Energy and Human Rights (RICEDH) concerning the Court’s advisory opinion on States’ obligations with respect to the climate change emergency.
Other
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03/30/2026
Amicus brief by Kenya Meteorological Society in collaboration with the African Synthesis Centre for Climate Change, Environment and Development, offering insights on the climate change obligations required of States by the African Charter system, particularly those obligations arising from due diligence and cooperation, viewed through the lens of the philosophical tradition of Ubuntu and through a synthesis of climate science, economic and legal evidence.
Other
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03/30/2026
Other
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03/30/2026
Written observations by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) (on invitation), discussing the obligations of States under African and international law to address the climate crisis as a human rights issue, emphasizing the need for fossil fuel phaseout, adherence to best available science, protection of environmental defenders, and pursuit of reparations for climate harm.
Other
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03/30/2026
Amicus brief by Astrid Puentes Riaño (UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment), addressing States' obligations under international law and human rights law in the context of the climate crisis, with a focus on environmental protection, human rights, and the responsibilities of African States and private actors.
Other
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03/30/2026
Amicus brief by Child Rights International Network, addressing State obligations under the African Charter and international law to protect children's rights in the context of the climate crisis, emphasizing intergenerational equity, just transition, and regulation of third-party actors.
Other
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03/30/2026
Request to submit amicus brief and a written submission of the brief by HEDA Resource Centre. Submits that rights guaranteed under the African Charter should be interpreted in light of an accountable energy transition, which requires States States to enforce responsible fossil fuel divestment strategies by multinationals, given the human rights and environmental violations of poor decommissioning and clean up.
Other
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03/30/2026
Request to submit amicus brief by Centre for Climate Justice – Bangladesh (CCJ-B), to discuss matters related to international law and justice from an African perspective including by way of comparative analysis with Bangladesh.
Other
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03/30/2026
Amicus brief by Our Children's Trust, providing a concise synthesis of the most relevant jurisprudence and available scientific evidence on the following questions:
(i) What, if any, are State Parties’ obligations to implement mitigation measures in response to climate change?
(ii) What, if any, are African States’ obligations to cooperate with other States,
especially historical emitters, to limit global warming to below the 1.5°C threshold, to avert an existential climate crisis for present and future generations on the continent?
(iii) Given “the inadequacies of targeting the 1.5°C threshold to stem the climate crisis,” what, if any, are “the obligations on the African States to put pressure on historical emitters to do more to bring down emissions and attain a target well below the 1.5°C threshold”?
(iv) What, if any, are States’ specific obligations to safeguard the rights of present and future generations adversely impacted by climate change?
Other
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03/30/2026
Amicus brief submitted by Michelle X. Liu, on behalf of the Human Rights Institute at Georgetown Law, addressing the urgent and complex issues surrounding the protection of children’s human rights in the context of the climate crisis.
Other
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03/30/2026
Written observations submitted by Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), offering an institutional perspective drawn from its diverse membership across Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, including States particularly affected by and vulnerable to climate change. The observations provide material and analysis in relation to:
(a) relevant factual and contextual considerations affecting OACPS Member States;
(b) normative and policy developments and practice among Member States pertinent to the questions before the Court; and
(c) the interaction between the applicable regional human rights framework and relevant principles and rules of international law bearing on the questions posed to the Court.
Other
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03/29/2026
Amicus brief by the students of the Master 2 in Human Rights Law and the European Union in the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, with the collaboration of PhD candidate Nikolas Keckhut and supervision by Professor Laurence Burgorgue-Larsen (in French).
Other
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03/27/2026
Amicus brief by Human Rights Watch, urging states to address human rights impacts of climate change, particularly in the context of internal displacement and planned relocation, with a focus on Senegal's Khar Yalla case.
Other
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03/27/2026
Amicus brief by Network of African National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI), emphasizing the urgent need for African States to adopt human rights-based approaches to address climate change, focusing on protecting vulnerable populations, ensuring intergenerational equity, and strengthening the role of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) in climate governance.
Other
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03/27/2026
Amicus brief by James R. May, on behalf of Dignity Rights Advocates, arguing that the ACtHPR's AO should feature the internationally and regionally recognized right to human dignity as the lens through which to ascertain rights, remedies, and obligations for the climate crisis.
Other
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03/26/2026
Amicus brief by Himanshu, Choedup Wangmo, and Rinzin Dorji, on behalf of Jigme Singye Wangchuck School of Law, Bhutan. The brief argues that Articles 24, 22, and the peoples' rights architecture of the African Charter already impose positive, measurable climate obligations on States, requiring institutionalized mitigation, adaptation, and resilience frameworks, a just transition, and systemic protection of vulnerable populations, drawing on converging ICJ, ITLOS, and IACtHR jurisprudence and Bhutan's constitutional experience as comparative support.
Other
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02/09/2026
Amicus brief by Sabin Center for Climate Change Law on climate science and human rights
Other
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12/10/2025
Expert observation submitted by Professors Muhammed Tawfiq Ladan (National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, Abuja), Kasim Balarabe (O.P. Jindal Global University, India), and Irekpitan Okukpon (University of Bradford, UK), reflecting the understanding—consistent with the African Human Rights Court's own jurisprudence—that the African Charter is a living instrument whose interpretation must respond to contemporary conditions, including the existential and systemic risks associated with climate change.
Other
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05/02/2025
Petition requesting the advisory opinion.
Petition
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Summary
On May 2, 2025, the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU), supported by civil society organizations including the African Climate Platform, Natural Justice, Resilient40, and the Environmental Lawyers Collective for Africa, filed a petition before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights requesting an Advisory Opinion on the human rights obligations of African states in the context of climate change. The request was submitted pursuant to Article 4 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The petition seeks the Court’s interpretation of regional human rights instruments, notably the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Maputo Protocol, the Kampala Convention, and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, as they relate to climate change. It argues that climate change poses a significant threat to numerous rights protected under these instruments, including the rights to life, health, food, water, housing, development, dignity, a healthy environment, and the rights of vulnerable groups such as women, children, Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, and internally displaced persons.
The applicants request the Court to clarify states’ obligations regarding:
• Legal standards for climate change mitigation, adaptation, resilience, and the redress of loss and damage;
• The protection of environmental defenders and affected communities from reprisals;
• Participation, transparency, and accountability in climate-related decision-making;
• The just and equitable transition to low-carbon energy systems;
• The regulation of third-party conduct, particularly that of multinational corporations;
• The decolonization of natural resource governance frameworks.
The petition emphasizes the disproportionate impact of climate change on Africa, despite the continent’s minimal contribution to historical greenhouse gas emissions. It calls on the Court to affirm that African states have an obligation to protect their populations from climate-related harms and to ensure human rights are safeguarded in all climate action.
Topics mentioned most in this case Beta
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Group
Topics
Target
Policy instrument
Risk
Impacted group
Just transition
Renewable energy
Fossil fuel
Greenhouse gas
Economic sector
Adaptation/resilience
Finance