Right to Carbon or Right to Life: Human Rights Approaches to Climate Change

Abstract:     
The limitations of compliance mechanisms under international environmental law suggest that we should look to the usefulness of claims of human rights violations. At least three forums might be used for litigation regarding climate change: international courts or compliance bodies, international human rights bodies, and national courts either applying international law or adjudicating human rights claims under domestic law.

If we come to see human-caused global climate change as violating fundamental substantive or procedural human rights, perhaps we can make a breakthrough in the policy debates to move our politics and jurisprudence toward a solution based on rights claims.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 36

Keywords: climate change, human rights, global warming

working papers series