A Reflection on Trans-Generational Harms in International Human Rights Law

This article examines how international human rights law addresses transgenerational harms: present or continuing violations whose effects impair the rights of subsequent generations. Drawing on the ICCPR, ICESCR other UN treaties, and regional jurisprudence, it focuses on two areas in which such harms are especially visible: Indigenous peoples’ rights and environmental degradation and climate change. It then considers three questions: who qualifies as a victim, how far State responsibility extends over time, and what remedies are appropriate. International courts and treaty bodies havebeen more willing to recognize living children and grandchildren as direct or indirect victims than to treat not-yet-born persons as rightsholders. Yet doctrines such as continuing violations and collective, forward-looking reparations increasingly address harms that persist across generations. The article argues that these developments reveal an emerging pragmatic framework for transgenerational justice, while leaving important issues of victim status, responsibility, and remedies unresolved. It concludes by relating this evolving jurisprudence to the Maastricht Principles on the Human Rights of Future Generations and to the continuing development of the Covenants.