Session co-organized by the Working Group on business and human rights and the Office for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Interpretation available in English, French and Spanish
(Version française ci-jointe) (Versión en español adjunta)
Brief description of the session: The use of litigation to achieve progress on climate change and human rights has nearly tripled since the Paris Agreement was reached in 2015. More recently, in 2022 the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 76/300, recognising “the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right”. This recognition followed the UN Human Rights Council resolution 48/13 which acknowledged the right in October 2021. As activists and civil society organizations are increasingly seeking to hold States and businesses accountable for their role in contributing to the multiple planetary crises and related harm to human rights, including those of future generations, climate litigation is being used as a tool to influence policy outcomes or change corporate behaviour. Climate litigation has shown its potential to lead to a smart mix of measures to address climate change and uphold human rights by strengthening regulation, incentives, policies, corporate practices, and benchmarking. This has in turn led to an increased emphasis on the role of businesses, including their need to conduct human rights due diligence with environmental dimensions. While some emerging multistakeholder initiatives are trying to tackle these issues, the question remains of how States and businesses can better collaborate with civil society organizations and other stakeholders to raise awareness and increase implementation of human rights-respecting frameworks in the context of climate change.
Key objectives of the session:
Provide an overview of climate change and human rights litigation globally and regionally.
Set out the case and evidence for putting climate change and human rights into the boardroom, through the lens of a human rights-based economy.
Highlight opportunities and benefits for States and businesses to accelerate their actions on climate change and human rights, by addressing commonly perceived barriers.
Discuss tangible steps on how different stakeholder groups and rightsholders can move forward to ensure the effective promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, including implementation.
Additional background documents:
UN Working Group on business and human rights communication to Saudi Aramco and financial institutions on climate change and human rights
