The role of human rights bodies in climate litigation

Climate litigation is rising to the surface as a valuable instrument to plug the accountability gaps left by international and national climate change law. Human rights arguments are increasingly used as a legal ground for this litigation. Alongside domestic courts, national and international human rights bodies, i.e. national human rights institutions, United Nations human rights mechanisms and regional human rights bodies, emerge as suitable legal venues for climate complaints. The present report aims to shed light on the role that these bodies play and will play in climate litigation. To this end, following an overview of the impacts of climate change and of climate change response measures on the enjoyment of human rights, the report proposes a typology of climate complaints filed with human rights bodies. The report distinguishes between ‘pro climate’ and ‘just transition’ complaints, and identifies the main applicants and defendants involved, the types of climate action concerned and the specific human rights that are used as legal grounds for climate complaints. The typology is displayed also by means of illustrative tables. The report highlights then the specific legal hurdles faced by climate complainants before human rights bodies, both procedural (‘victim status requirement’, ‘extraterritorial jurisdiction’, and ‘exhaustion of domestic remedies’), and substantive (causation, attribution, and due diligence standard). The report offers some explanation on how and to what extent such obstacles can be overcome in the future.