Monitoring States’ Compliance with their Human Rights Obligations, in the Context of Climate Change

This briefing note by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) explains how civil society can use the UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies (HRTBs) reporting procedure to hold states accountable for climate change policies. It details the process of submitting parallel reports to secure country-specific recommendations, which can then be leveraged for national advocacy and litigation.

• The UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies (HRTBs) are independent expert mechanisms that review whether states are implementing their legally binding obligations under international human rights treaties. Six specific bodies are identified as more likely to address climate issues: the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Human Rights Committee (HRCom), the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
• The State reporting procedure allows civil society to submit 'parallel reports' to influence the 'Concluding Observations' (COBs) issued by the Committees. While COBs are not legally binding, they serve as authoritative guidance that can be used to pressure governments, reinforce national advocacy, and support climate litigation.
• Engagement in the State reporting procedure offers several advantages over litigation, including relatively shorter timelines between information submission and the adoption of recommendations, and the absence of risks regarding negative precedents, as Committees typically only comment on topics of concern.
• The reporting process generally takes 18-24 months and consists of five main stages: the State's national report submission, the Committee's publication of a 'List of Issues' (LOI), the State's reply to the LOI, a public dialogue in Geneva, and the final publication of Concluding Observations.
• The document provides examples of how HRTBs have addressed specific climate-related policy failures: recommending that Argentina reconsider hydraulic fracturing in the Vaca Muerta region, denouncing fossil fuel exports from Australia, Norway, and Canada, and questioning Sweden and Switzerland on the regulation of fossil fuel investments by financial actors.
• In Norway, HRTBs provided critical support for climate advocates by underlining the state's extra-territorial human rights responsibility for emissions from exported oil, contradicting a Norwegian Court ruling that had found the state not responsible for emissions resulting from oil exported to other countries.
• In Spain, the Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that the state assess the impact of air pollution from coal-fired power plants on children's health and the climate to create a strategy for regulation and remedy.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2020). Monitoring States’ Compliance with their Human Rights Obligations, in the Context of Climate Change. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/BriefingNote_LeveragingHRTBs_2.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. Monitoring States’ Compliance with their Human Rights Obligations, in the Context of Climate Change. 2020. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/BriefingNote_LeveragingHRTBs_2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=Monitoring States’ Compliance with their Human Rights Obligations, in the Context of Climate Change |date=January 2020 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/BriefingNote_LeveragingHRTBs_2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2020monitoring, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{Monitoring States’ Compliance with their Human Rights Obligations, in the Context of Climate Change}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2020}, month = jan, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/BriefingNote_LeveragingHRTBs_2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }