Collective Work

Collective Advocacy on Biodiversity and Land Rights- COP 15 outcomes

On 19 December 2022, the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, held in Montreal, ended with the adoption of the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF), a landmark agreement on measures considered critical to address the dangerous loss of biodiversity and restore natural ecosystems.

Advancing the Right to a Healthy Environment

Amidst a triple planetary crisis (climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss) with existential stakes and devastating impacts for the human rights of billions of people across regions, the universal recognition in 2022 of the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is...

COP 27 delivers progress on Loss and Damage but fails on fossil fuels

This year alone we have seen extreme weather events and slow-onset processes resulting in catastrophic loss and damage (impacts of climate change that cannot be avoided through adaptation and mitigation activities), leading to serious human rights harm all across the world affecting millions of people, for which historical and present responsibility lies with wealthy, highly industrialized countries and powerful corporate actors. Loss and damage is a human rights crisis (more on our analysis here), and States, particularly wealthy and highly industrialized nations, have clear legal obligations to urgently and meaningfully address loss and damage, both in terms of the symptoms and the root causes. Many ESCR-Net members confront climate impacts on the frontlines and forcefully resist the structural drivers thereof. Loss and damage has thus been taken up as a collective ESCR-Net priority for the past three years.

ESCR-Net Members Submit Amicus Curiae Brief on International Standards for the Prevention and Remediation of Environmental Damage in the Case of the Community of La Oroya vs. Peru before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

A collective of ESCR-Net members and allied organizations filed an amicus curiae brief on international human rights, environmental, and comparative law standards to the Inter-American Court...

Network Members Exchange on Access to International Justice for Climate-Related Human Rights

On September 27, 2022, ESCR-Net’s Environment and ESCR Networkwide Project and Strategic Litigation Working Group co- hosted an online discussion on climate and human rights litigation: Ensuring access to international justice for climate-related human rights violations. Members from...

Media Advisory: Grassroots, Global South, Feminist and Indigenous Leaders Demand Human Rights be Centered in Addressing Loss and Damage

There is no denying that the historical and present responsibility for the climate crisis lies primarily with wealthy, highly industrialized countries and powerful corporate actors. Despite contributing the least to the climate crisis, frontline communities in the Global South are paying the price with the destruction of their territories and the erasure of their cultural heritage.

African Peoples’ Counter Cop: Resisting False Solutions to Advance Climate Justice & Biodiversity Protection

Ahead of COP 27, which will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt and COP 15 which will be held in Montreal, Canada; ESCR-Net in partnership with Natural Justice, the African...

Members intervene in pair of groundbreaking climate change-related human rights cases pending at the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights

Collectives of ESCR-Net members have filed third-party interventions in a pair of groundbreaking climate change-related human rights cases now pending before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. The two cases—Duarte Agostinho v. Portugal and 32 Other States, and ...

Collective Submission on Loss and Damage to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights & Climate Change

On 23 June 2022, ESCR-Net members sent a collective submission to the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on human rights and climate change, Mr. Ian Fry, in response to a call for input on “Promotion and protection of human rights in the context of mitigation, adaptation, and financial actions to address climate change, with particular emphasis on loss and damage,” to inform his upcoming report to be presented at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly. The joint submission focused especially on loss and damage. [Read the full submission here].

Centering Care in a Feminist Intersectional Approach to Loss and Damage

As the pandemic and escalating climate crisis has exacerbated inequalities and reminded us of the centrality of care in our societies, ESCR-Net held a CSW66* parallel event entitled “Centering Care In a Feminist Intersectional Approach to Loss and Damage” (24 March 2022). During the event, women's rights advocates and feminist activists from across regions reflected on advancing action to ensure the rapid, equitable, ecologically sustainable, and just transition away from fossil fuels to a zero-carbon, regenerative care-based society focused on the well-being of people and the planet.

UN Biodiversity: What Outcomes for the Human Right to Land?

Between 13-29 March 2022, intersessional meetings were held in Geneva ahead of COP15, an upcoming major United Nations biodiversity summit. Ahead of these preparatory talks amongst States, ESCR-Net members sent a collective letter calling on all Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to adopt a human-rights based approach overall, and in particular to recognize, respect, protect and promote the overarching right to self-determination, including free, prior and informed consent, the right to land and tenure rights in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework (GBF), which is currently being negotiated and likely to be adopted at COP15. It further called on governments to adopt a ‘land tenure indicator’ as well as emphasized the importance of strengthening protections for human rights defenders.

Collective letter: Centering the Right to Land and Tenure Rights in the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

Ahead of upcoming intersessional meetings in Geneva in March 2022, ESCR-Net members have adopted a...