PISFCC Celebrates Groundbreaking Inter-American Court Ruling

Climate Crisis Officially Recognised as a Human Rights Emergency

In a historic moment for climate justice, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued Advisory Opinion OC‑32/25 on 3 July 2025, declaring that the accelerating rise in global temperatures driven by human activity constitutes a climate emergency.

This ruling comes amid a surge in extreme weather across the globe. From devastating floods in Texas to heatwaves gripping Europe and wildfires burning across continents, what used to be described as “unusual weather” is now sadly everyday news. 

Across the Inter-American region, the signs are impossible to ignore. Mexico was battered by Hurricane Flossie, a powerful Category 3 storm that unleashed torrential rains and floods across coastal states like Guerrero, Michoacán, and Colima. In Argentina, the city of Bahía Blanca was submerged by sudden flash floods that killed at least 17 people and left hundreds more missing. The flooding followed a staggering 290mm of rainfall, nearly half the city’s annual average in just a few hours. Elsewhere in South America, Bolivia faced deadly floods earlier this year that displaced over 100,000 people and took more than 50 lives. And while parts of the Americas were drowning, others froze: Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay endured an unusual and brutal cold snap, bringing frost and snowfall to areas rarely prepared for such extremes. 

These are all part of the same pattern: a destabilized climate wreaking havoc on human life.

It was in this context that Chile and Colombia brought their case to the Court, seeking clarity on state obligations in the face of the climate crisis. The Court responded powerfully: it unanimously affirmed that only urgent and effective action can meet the scale of this global emergency. That includes ambitious mitigation, robust adaptation, and sustainable development - all guided by science, human rights, and equity. This ruling is more than symbolic, it is a clarion call underscoring the urgent need for transformation action.. It confirms what frontline communities and youth have long known: climate change is not just an environmental issue - it is a human rights crisis.

Responding to the Advisory Opinion, PISFCC President Cynthia Houniuhi said, “To recognise climate change as a human rights emergency is to acknowledge the lived realities of millions whose rights to life, health, culture, and self-determination are being eroded by a warming world. This ruling gives voice to those whose rights are under threat, including people like us in the Pacific, who face displacement, loss, and cultural erasure. It calls for urgent justice, grounded in respect for every human being.” 

Some key elements of the Advisory Opinion include:

1. Recognition of the Climate Emergency as a Human Rights Matter
   The Court defined the current situation as a “climate emergency” due to the accelerated increase in temperature caused by human activity, which disproportionately threatens vulnerable populations and future generations. Addressing this emergency requires immediate, science-based measures under a human rights lens.

2. Affirmation of the Right to a Healthy Environment
   The Court affirmed that a safe climate and a healthy environment are fundamental rights under the Inter-American system and States must curb emissions, adopt science-based and equitable climate targets, and prevent any irreversible harm to people and ecosystems.
   

3. Special Protection for Environmental Defenders and Vulnerable Groups
   Recognising the heightened risks faced by environmental advocates, children, indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant and other communities, and those in multidimensional poverty, the Court mandates that States enact specific measures to protect these groups from climate-related harms and criminalisation of environmental defence.
   

4. Duty of Due Diligence and Co-operation
   Under general obligations to respect and protect rights, States must exercise enhanced due diligence in climate policymaking, enact adequate national legislation, and cooperate regionally and internationally to meet their human rights commitments in the face of the climate emergency.

With this legal clarity on hand, this advisory opinion emboldens all stakeholders fighting for climate justice by strengthening the legal basis for climate litigation, accelerating much needed policy shifts and driving national and regional cooperation towards addressing the problem of climate change. 

PISFCC’s Campaigner Siosiua Veikune said that “With this advisory opinion, the law is becoming more and more clearer on the need for action across all levels. It is undeniable now that the climate crisis is a human rights crisis and that we can no longer afford to be siloed in our collective response. What the Inter-American Court’s opinion has declared is a ruling that is responsive to the lived realities of people on the ground and provides us all a renewed impetus to act and move this transformational opinion into urgent and meaningful action.” 

The tide of international law is now shifting with this being the second advisory opinion clarifying state obligations following last year’s advisory opinion of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and paves the way for the International Court of Justice to deliver its opinion later this year. 

Keep following PISFCC’s social media accounts to stay updated on the ICJ AO delivery. 

NB* The IACtHR Advisory Opinion is currently only available in Spanish. An English version is expected soon, please check back regularly.

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