Climate Change-Related Obligations under the Inter-American Human Rights System: A prospective mapping

On January 9, 2023, the states of Colombia and Chile submitted an interpretative consultation to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights with the main purpose of clarifying “…the scope of State obligations… in order to respond to the climate emergency within the framework of international human rights law […]”. This piece offers a prospective analysis of the approach the Court might take and, to some extent, of the scope of the climate-related human rights obligations to be determined. It does so by examining, on the one side, the request and the interpretative margins of the advisory function and, on the other, the relevant environment-related jurisprudence of the Court. As a result, the paper makes three remarks regarding the foreseeable approach, content and scope of the future opinion: a) the general climate-related obligations will be complemented by enhanced obligations for the protection of groups in vulnerable situations, disproportionally affected by climate change; b) the scope and functioning of the climate-related obligations will be influenced by the particular features of the right to a healthy environment recognized by the Court; and c) the Court will answer the request by applying and further developing the ‘Inter-American framework of environment-related obligations’ to climate change.