Human Rights Obligations of States in the Context of Climate Change

The Human Rights Committee (CCPR) has increased its focus on climate change, issuing more recommendations and questions to states between 2019 and 2021. While early outputs primarily targeted Small Island Developing States and developing countries, the Committee has expanded its scope to include developed nations like Germany and Canada. Key areas of inquiry include mitigation, adaptation, procedural rights, and the regulation of private actors, with specific concerns raised regarding fossil fuel extraction in Guyana, Tanzania, and São Tomé and Príncipe. In the case of Teitiota v. New Zealand, the CCPR recognized that climate change could trigger non-refoulment obligations if it creates real threats to the right to life, though it found no breach in that specific instance. Additionally, the Pereira Benega v. Paraguay ruling established a precedent for state obligations to prevent environmental threats to private, family, and cultural life.

• The Human Rights Committee (CCPR) has steadily increased the frequency of its climate-related inquiries, rising from four recommendations and questions in 2019 to seven in 2020 and eight in 2021.
• While the CCPR's climate-related outputs in 2020 were exclusively directed at developing countries or Small Island Developing States (SIDS), in 2021 the Committee extended these inquiries to Canada and Germany.
• The CCPR has specifically questioned states on the human rights impacts of fossil fuel extraction, including offshore oil production in Guyana, the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline in Tanzania, and oil resource exploitation in São Tomé and Príncipe.
• In the case of Teitiota v. New Zealand, the CCPR ruled that while New Zealand did not breach non-refoulment obligations because Kiribati would not be uninhabitable for 10 to 15 years, the absence of adequate climate action could eventually trigger such obligations by threatening the right to life.
• The ruling in Pereira Benega v. Paraguay, though not directly about climate change, establishes a precedent that states have positive obligations to prevent environmental threats to the rights to private, family, and cultural life.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2022). Human Rights Obligations of States in the Context of Climate Change. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Human-Rights-Committee-on-Human-Rights-Obligations-of-States-in-the-Context-of-Climate-Changejan23.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. Human Rights Obligations of States in the Context of Climate Change. 2022. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Human-Rights-Committee-on-Human-Rights-Obligations-of-States-in-the-Context-of-Climate-Changejan23.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=Human Rights Obligations of States in the Context of Climate Change |date=2022 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Human-Rights-Committee-on-Human-Rights-Obligations-of-States-in-the-Context-of-Climate-Changejan23.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2022human, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{Human Rights Obligations of States in the Context of Climate Change}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2022}, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Human-Rights-Committee-on-Human-Rights-Obligations-of-States-in-the-Context-of-Climate-Changejan23.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }