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The document notes a sharp decline in the CCPR's explicit references to climate change in its 2022 State review process compared to previous years. It highlights specific recommendations for the Philippines regarding corporate liability and for Brazil regarding carbon emissions. Most significantly, it analyzes the case of Billy et al. v. Australia, where the CCPR found that Australia violated the rights to home, private life, family, and culture by failing to implement adequate climate adaptation measures for the Torres Strait Islanders, marking the first time a human rights treaty body established a State's duty to protect people from climate impacts.

The document reviews CEDAW's 2022 activities, noting that the committee issued climate-related recommendations or questions to 30 out of 49 States considered, with a primary focus on disaster risk reduction and adaptation over mitigation. It highlights specific concerns regarding fossil fuel extraction in Uganda and Namibia and details General Recommendation No. 39, which emphasizes the rights of Indigenous women and girls to free, prior and informed consent regarding extractive and climate projects on their territories.

The document reviews the 2022 activities of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), focusing on its Concluding Observations for the United States, France, and Cameroon. It highlights the Committee's concerns over the disproportionate impacts of climate change and extractive industries on racial and ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples. Additionally, it discusses the development of General Recommendation No. 37 on the right to health, noting civil society efforts to ensure the climate crisis and environmental racism are integrated into this framework, supported by findings from the IPCC and WHO.

The CESCR addressed climate change in most of its 2023 work, including twelve Concluding Observations and seven Lists of Issues. The Committee focused on mitigation policies, urging states like Brazil, Panama, and Portugal to meet their Paris Agreement NDCs, and recommended that China expand its emissions trading system and stop financing overseas coal power. Adaptation efforts were highlighted in nineteen statements, with specific calls for national adaptation plans in Cambodia, Palestine, and Yemen, and an emphasis on the participation of Indigenous Peoples in Panama. Additionally, the Committee challenged the fossil fuel reliance of states such as Qatar and China, while inquiring about oil refinery pollution in Curaçao.

The report argues that nature-based solutions (NbS) and carbon offsetting schemes often serve as a facade for corporate polluters to continue emitting while facilitating land grabbing and violating human rights. It provides numerous case studies across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas, highlighting systemic issues such as inflated carbon baselines, lack of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), and the failure of projects to deliver promised climate or social benefits. The document specifically critiques REDD+ projects, industrial tree plantations, and soil carbon programs for their lack of 'additionality' and their role in undermining food sovereignty and indigenous land rights.

The document argues that nature-based solutions (NBS) and carbon offsets often serve as a distraction for 'Big Polluters' to continue emitting while facilitating land grabs and violating Indigenous rights. It provides detailed evidence of inflated carbon baselines, lack of additionality, and social harms across Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and North America. Key examples include REDD+ projects in Zimbabwe and Gabon that overestimated carbon savings, and soil carbon initiatives in the US and Kenya that threaten food sovereignty and traditional livelihoods. The report also critiques improved cookstove offsets for using flawed accounting to generate 'fake emission cuts'.

The document argues that carbon markets and offsets are 'false climate solutions' that fail to reduce emissions, allow major polluters to continue emitting, and facilitate land grabs and human rights violations, particularly in the Global South. It details the mechanisms of the UNFCCC's Article 6, various voluntary and regional trading schemes, and provides a strategic framework for civil society to oppose these markets through policy advocacy, legal tactics, and community solidarity.

The report argues that individual human rights frameworks are insufficient to protect Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendants, and peasants facing systemic threats from corporate extraction and neoliberal globalisation. It defines 'territory' as any socially constructed space—including the human body—and calls for a shift toward recognizing collective rights to land, water, and self-determination to achieve transformative system change.

Friends of the Earth International argues that the neoliberal system drives ecological crises and fuels violence against marginalized communities. The organization advocates for a shift from individual human rights frameworks toward the recognition of collective 'rights of peoples' to protect land, water, and ancestral practices. It defines 'territory' as a socially constructed space—including the human body—and positions the defense of these territories and their defenders as a prerequisite for systemic transformation toward sustainable societies.

Friends of the Earth International argues that the neoliberal capitalist system drives multiple ecological and social crises, leading to the systemic violation of the collective rights of marginalized communities. The organization advocates for a shift from individual human rights frameworks to 'Rights of Peoples' to protect indigenous, Afro-descendant, and peasant communities. It defines 'territory' as a socially constructed space encompassing spiritual, cultural, and physical relationships, including the human body, and positions the defense of these territories and their defenders as essential for achieving a transformative system change toward sustainable societies.

The document examines the state of forest governance globally, noting that while protected area coverage has increased, human rights violations and the 'downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement' of these areas persist. It highlights a disparity between international focus on tropical forests and the limited scrutiny of industrial logging in boreal and temperate forests in developed nations. While some progress in the legal recognition of Indigenous Peoples' and local communities' land rights has occurred, approximately 1.375 billion hectares of customary claims remain unrecognized globally, and environmental defenders continue to face violence.

The document finds that the world is off track to meet 2030 forest goals and 2025 private sector deforestation targets, driven by global demand for commodities. It highlights a lack of government priority and insufficient REDD+ incentives, limited impact from a small group of leading companies, and a gap between the recognized importance of Indigenous Peoples and local communities and the actual funding and legal protections they receive.

The 2023 Forest Declaration Assessment reports that the world is off track to meet 2030 forest goals, with global gross deforestation reaching 6.6 million hectares in 2022. While over 50 countries are on track to eliminate deforestation, including sustainable reductions in Indonesia and Malaysia, these gains are offset by massive losses in other critical ecosystems. The report emphasizes a severe funding gap, noting that only 2.2 billion USD in annual government funding is allocated to forests, and criticizes the lack of corporate accountability and transparency. It calls for a radical shift away from 'business-as-usual' economic models toward those that value standing forests and support the land rights of indigenous and local communities.

The 2023 Forest Declaration Assessment reports that the world is off track to meet 2030 forest goals, with 2022 global gross deforestation reaching 6.6 million hectares. While over 50 countries are on track to eliminate deforestation, including progress in Indonesia and Malaysia, these successes are offset by massive losses in other regions. The report emphasizes a critical funding gap, noting that only US$ 2.2 billion in annual public funds are directed toward forests, and criticizes the lack of transparency and failure to protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

The 2023 Forest Declaration Assessment argues that a radical transformation of development pathways and finance is necessary to stop forest loss. It calls for a shift from 'business-as-usual' extraction to rights-based governance, urging signatories of the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration to increase transparency and data collection. Key recommendations include redirecting 'gray' finance toward 'green' finance, securing land tenure for Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and implementing mandatory corporate disclosures to eliminate deforestation from supply chains.

The 2023 Forest Declaration Assessment finds that while global protected area coverage is increasing, significant gaps remain in the legal recognition of Indigenous and local community lands, with 1.375 billion hectares still unrecognized. The report highlights a sharp contrast in Brazil, where political leadership under President Lula da Silva led to a 42% drop in Amazon deforestation in early 2022, while other regions face high risks of illegal logging due to corruption. It notes the emergence of demand-side measures like the EU's Regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR) and a global rise in climate litigation to protect forests. However, environmental defenders remain the most targeted human rights defenders, with 194 killings recorded in 2022.

Global Witness reports that at least 177 land and environmental defenders were murdered in 2022, with Latin America accounting for 88% of these cases. The report highlights the extreme danger faced by Indigenous peoples, who represented 36% of those killed, and identifies the Amazon as a critical hotspot where 22% of global killings occurred. It specifically examines the role of illegal gold mining in Brazil, Venezuela, and Peru, and the impact of the 'green transition' mineral boom in Southeast Asia. The document argues that impunity for these crimes is systemic and calls for stronger corporate accountability, specifically through the EU's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.

In 2022, Global Witness documented at least 177 killings of land and environmental defenders, with 88% occurring in Latin America. Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico accounted for over 70% of these deaths. The report highlights a critical situation in the Amazon, where 22% of global killings occurred, often linked to illegal mining and agroindustry. It also details the 'criminalization' of activists as a non-lethal strategy to silence dissent. The document advocates for the EU's proposed Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive to hold companies accountable for human rights and environmental abuses in their global supply chains.

The document outlines best practices for integrating public engagement into the entire mine life cycle, from exploration to closure. It emphasizes the use of grievance mechanisms, multistakeholder oversight, and participatory monitoring to build trust. It specifically highlights the necessity of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) for Indigenous Peoples, providing case studies from British Columbia, Canada, and Peru to illustrate the implementation of consent-based decision-making and community-led environmental monitoring.

The IGF Mining Policy Framework Guidance 2023 outlines six pillars for sustainable mining governance. It emphasizes the creation of transparent legal frameworks, the optimization of public revenues through progressive fiscal regimes, and the promotion of local socioeconomic benefits with a strong focus on gender equality and indigenous rights. The guide details environmental standards for air, water, and biodiversity, mandates rigorous mine closure planning with financial guarantees, and provides specific strategies to formalize and support artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) while eliminating harmful practices like child labor and mercury use.