Human rights treaty bodies are increasingly recognizing climate change as a human rights issue and translating that recognition into concrete expectations for governments.
In 2024 and 2025, the seven UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies (HRTBs) most directly relevant to climate change issued 229 documents referencing climate change: 117 in 2024 and 112 in 2025. This growing body of guidance matters because States already have legally binding obligations under international human rights treaties. These obligations require governments to protect the rights of people most affected by climate change and to ensure that climate action is non-discriminatory, equitable, and meaningfully participatory.
HRTBs play a critical role in translating these obligations into practical guidance. Through their reviews of States and their interpretation of human rights treaties, they are helping clarify what governments must do to protect human rights in the face of climate change.
This Synthesis Note examines the work of the seven HRTBs in 2024 and 2025 and builds on previous Synthesis Notes covering 2023, 2022 and 2021 Synthesis Notes, which provided an overview of all relevant HRTBs outputs adopted from 2020 to 2022, and our 2020 Update reviewing developments of the previous years (and complementing the 2019 Update and 2018 Update).
It highlights key trends in the bodies’ recommendations and shows how human rights standards are increasingly informing expectations for ambitious and just climate action.
While climate change featured prominently in HRTBs’ State review procedures, no individual communication concerning climate change was decided upon in 2024 or 2025. State reviews, therefore, remain the principal mechanism through which HRTBs are currently addressing States’ climate-related human rights obligations.