11 July 2025
Climate change, human rights, and human rights defenders
On 29 May 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a monumental advisory opinion on State obligations under regional human rights law in the context of climate change.
The opinion, requested by the Governments of Chile and Colombia in January 2023, applies to all 35 members of the Organisation of American States (OAS).
Among its conclusions, the Court unanimously recognizes not only the right to defend human rights, but a special State duty of protection towards environmental rights defenders, stating:
In virtue of the right to defend human rights, States have a special duty of protection towards environmental rights defenders which translates to concrete obligations, including, among other aspects, to protect them, investigate and, if applicable, sanction attacks, threats and intimidation against them, and counter the “criminalisation” of the defence of the environment… (para 18, page 232)
This is only one aspect of the sweeping opinion. In it, the Court also recognises, among other things, the right to a healthy climate and the rights of nature, and outlines State obligations to mitigate emissions, cooperate effectively with one another, advance towards sustainable development prioritising vulnerable groups and tackling poverty aggravated by climate change, guarantee procedural rights in the context of climate change, and legislate to regulate companies, obliging them to conduct human rights and climate due diligence.
The Court defines the right to defend human rights as protecting the possibility to: “… exercise freely, without limitation or risk of any form, diverse activities and work aimed at the promotion, monitoring, dissemination, teaching, defence, assertion or protection of universally recognised human rights and fundamental freedoms.” (para 561, page 201)
The advisory opinion underlines the fundamental nature of environmental rights defenders in the context of the climate emergency, building on previous case law recognising their work as fundamental for strengthening democracy and the rule of law. Drawing on this, the Court outlines a State obligation to respect and guarantee the right to defend human rights, and derives several specific duties from it:
- a duty to recognise, promote and guarantee the rights of human rights defenders, creating (1) an obligation to provide them with the necessary means to exercise the right to defend human rights, and (2) an obligation to refrain from putting any obstacles in the way of their exercise of the right;
- a duty to guarantee to a safe and enabling environment in which human rights defenders can act freely, without threats, restrictions or risks to their life or physical security, creating an obligation to prevent attacks and intimidation against them, mitigate existing risks and adopt and provide effective protection measures for them;
- a duty to investigate and sanction attacks, threats and intimidation of human rights defenders in the course of their work, and provide reparation for damages, creating an obligation to investigate and clarify the facts in such cases, with a strengthened obligation of due diligence in the case of attacks against women human rights defenders (para 566, pp 203-204)
Warning that environmental rights defenders face accentuated risks of retaliation in the context of climate change, including specific, additional risks faced by women environmental defenders and environmental defenders from specific groups, the Court outlines further concrete obligations for States in relation to them. Following this, States must:
- collect and keep up to date disaggregated data on attacks against human rights defenders;
- design and implement policies aimed at addressing the structural causes of violence against environmental defenders and prevent future violence and intimidation, with the involvement of environmental defenders and adopting an intersectional approach;
- adopt the necessary measures to recognise and protect the right to defend environmental rights throughout the State and in society in general (para 575, p. 207).
Expanding on these fundamental points, the Court states that States must create protection mechanisms for human rights defenders or reinforce them where they already exist, and ensure that they include specific strategies for the protection of environmental defenders (paras 576 – 579, pp. 207-208).
The advisory opinion also establishes that States must take concrete steps to combat impunity for attacks against human rights defenders – a major problem around the world, including in OAS Member States – including by enhancing State capacity to investigate such attacks, stating the following:
Threats and attacks on the integrity and life of human rights defenders, as well as impunity for these acts, are particularly grave given that they have an effect not only on the individual, but also on the collective, to the extent that they prevent society from learning the truth about the situation of respect for human rights or the violation of peoples’ rights under a given State’s jurisdiction… (para 580, p. 208)
Finally, the Court holds that States have specific duties to combat the criminalisation of environmental rights defenders. To do so, they must:
- identify the laws that are being used against human rights defenders in retaliation for their work, as well as those that could have a dissuasive effect on the exercise of the right to defend human rights
- review any such laws and legislate to repeal or modify them, as necessary
- adopt processes allowing for the rapid dismissal of judicial or administrative actions aimed solely at silencing or intimidation human rights defenders
- conduct trainings and capacity building for police and judicial authorities on the regional standards for the protection of environmental rights defenders with the objective of preventing judicial harassment
The question, following the advisory opinion, is what happens next. The ball is now in the court of the States bound by the regional agreements the Court’s decision is based on. I urge them to begin work to take up the challenge set by the Court, including where it comes to human rights defenders.
Note: All quotations are unofficial translations from the original Spanish.