The Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued an opinion on July 3, 2025, that countries must protect the climate system as part of their human rights obligations under the American Convention on Human Rights and other human rights law. It said that the climate crisis affects numerous human rights of individuals and communities, including Indigenous peoples, afro descendant, rural communities, and children, which must be protected under a high degree of care.

The Court underscored that its decision is applicable to all 34 countries that form the Organization of American States, including the United States and Canada. According to the court, preventing harm to the climate system is a global legal obligation, incumbent upon all states, which requires banning activities "that irreversibly threaten the vital balance of interdependent ecosystems that enable the survival of present and future generations on a habitable planet."

The long-anticipated Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency and Human Rights was requested by Chile and Colombia in 2023. They asked the court to clarify states' obligations under the American Convention, the San Salvador Protocol to that treaty, and other regional treaties.

The court said that countries need to adopt concrete, science-based measures to progressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, agriculture, and deforestation. The court also said that governments need to hold polluters to account, adopt and implement mitigation and adaptation targets and strategies, and ensure that individuals and communities disproportionately affected byclimate change can meaningfully participate in making climate policy.

In the context of communities considering relocation because of sea level rise and climate impacts, governments need to approach planned relocation as a measure of last resort, "in accordance with international and regional human rights standards," and avoid reproducing cycles of dispossession.

Advisory Opinions in the Inter-American System carry significant political and legal weight. At the national level, the court's opinion may help drive new climate commitments and ensure people can influence these decisions through meaningful participation. The decision explicitly demands that state authorities must ensure the compatibility of their climate policies with the Opinion. This is especially important since most countries in the region are yet to update their climate mitigation commitments.

The Americas already faces severe human rights threats due to climate change, affecting the Amazon, island territories, and Caribbean states. Human Rights Watch has previously documented that poor government regulation of harmful industries enables deforestation and burning fossil fuels, the main drivers of the greenhouse gas emissions causing global warming, with devastating effects for Indigenous peoples, forest dependent communities, and communities on the fence lines (that is, adjacent) to fossil fuel infrastructure.

Source: Human Rights Watch