November 30th, 2022
GENEVA (CH) — In October, Vanuatu announced its initiative to request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on human rights and climate change at the opening of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly. Today a core group of eighteen regionally diverse countries tabled a draft resolution to take this request forward. The resolution will now be presented to and discussed by all UN Member States, and is expected to be voted early next year.
CIEL President and CEO, Carroll Muffett, issued the following statement:
Despite thirty years of climate negotiations — and universal recognition that the climate crisis is undermining fundamental human rights, damaging the global environment, and jeopardizing both built and natural systems vital to present and future generations — the unfettered production of the fossil fuels driving that crisis has continued to expand. In the face of that inertia, this resolution seeks guidance from the International Court of Justice on two simple, but fundamental questions: What are States’ obligations under international law to ensure protection of the climate system on which both present and future generations depend? And what are the legal consequences for States which have failed to meet these obligations? The answers to those questions could catalyze ambition, and clarify for States that the continued failure to act has legal significance and legal consequences as a matter of international law.
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Note to editors:
The draft resolution is tabled by a group of geographically diverse countries, covering both the Global North and the Global South, and states vulnerable to the climate crisis as well as large historical emitters: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Germany, Liechtenstein, Federated States of Micronesia, Morocco, Mozambique, New Zealand, Portugal, Romania, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Uganda, Vanuatu and Vietnam. All States must now actively support this core group of countries in the negotiations towards the adoption of the resolution, giving the International Court of Justice the strongest mandate possible to develop this important advisory opinion.
Media contact:
Rossella Recupero: press@ciel.org | +41 762 165 976