Available in Russian
Authors: Alexander Solntsev, Anastasia Otrashevskaya
DOI: 10.21128/2226-2059-2024-1-3-23
Keywords: indigenous peoples; international environmental law; human rights treaty bodies; UN Human Rights Committee; right to life; climate litigation
International justice in the field of resolving climate disputes is only gaining strength. The UN human rights treaty bodies have issued three decisions, twelve cases are pending before the European Court of Human Rights, and three eminent international courts (the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights) are in the process of issuing advisory opinions on issues related to climate change. It is important to monitor and analyze each decision in order to understand the reasoning of the parties to the dispute and of the judges (or experts in the case of quasi-judicial bodies), the positive and negative aspects of the decision, and their legitimacy. This article examines the opinion of the UN Human Rights Committee in which the applicants, Australia’s indigenous peoples living in the Torres Strait Islands, argued that Australia had violated the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by failing to take adequate measures for mitigation and adaptation to prevent the negative impacts of climate change on the applicants and the islands where they live. For the first time in the history of international law, the Human Rights Committee found that a State party had violated the rights of the applicants. This case is a pioneer in many respects. This decision marked the first time that an international quasi-judicial body found that a State had violated the provisions of an international human rights treaty (Articles 17 and 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) through inadequate climate adaptation and mitigation policies. For the first time, a State was held internationally responsible for greenhouse gas emissions under international human rights law and ordered to pay compensation to the complainants. It was also the first time that an international quasi-judicial body had found a State guilty of violating the cultural rights of indigenous peoples due to the adverse impacts of climate change.
About the authors: Alexander Solntsev – Candidate of Sciences (Ph.D.) in Law, Associate Professor, Deputy Head of the Department of International Law in Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba, Moscow, Russia; Anastasia Otrashevskaya – Ph.D. Student, Department of International Law, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba, Moscow, Russia.
Citation: Solntsev A., Otrashevskaya A. (2024) Komitet OON po pravam cheloveka: kommentariy Mneniya po delu o kopensatsii za uscherb ot posledstviy izmeneniya klimata (o zhitelyakh Torresova proliva) [UN Human Rights Committee: opinion commentary on the climate change compensation case (Torres Strait Islanders Case)]. Mezhdunarodnoe pravosudie, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 3–23. (In Russian).
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