Press Release: CDER to Appear Before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, on the climate emergency and rights of nature

April 19, 2024

CONTACT: Hugo Echeverría, External Attorney, Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, Ecuador, hugo.echeverria@mail.mcgill.ca

Mari Margil, Executive Director, Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, mmargil@centerforenvironmentalrights.org

BARBADOS:  The Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER) will appear before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Wednesday, April 24.  CDER’s attorney, Hugo Echeverría, will present.  The hearing will take place in Barbados at the University of the West Indies.

The Climate Emergency, Human Rights, and the Rights of Nature

In 2023, Colombia and Chile submitted a request to the Inter-American Court requesting an advisory opinion “to clarify the scope of State obligations…to respond to the climate emergency within the framework of international human rights law…as well as on nature and on human survival on our planet.”

The Inter-American Court invited written submissions from interested parties.  CDER provided its submission in December.  It is available below in Spanish and English.  The Inter-American Court has now scheduled a series of hearings to receive testimony from parties who made submissions.

In CDER’s submission to the Inter-American Court, we explain that facing overlapping environmental crises, such as climate change, species extinction, and ecosystem collapse, a growing number of countries in the Americas – including Ecuador, Panama, and Bolivia – are protecting both the human right to a healthy environment and the rights of the environment itself in law.  These crises have developed and accelerated under traditional environmental laws, which largely regulate the use and exploitation of nature. 

CDER’s submission provides a unique perspective to the Inter-American Court, emphasizing that the protection of the human right to a healthy environment requires that we move beyond traditional human-centric environmental laws, which have proven inadequate to address these crises, and of the need to protect the rights of nature.

In our submission, we describe how the human right to a healthy environment and the rights of nature are distinct rights.  We explain that these rights are complementary, and that addressing the climate emergency and human rights, will require protecting and guaranteeing both sets of rights. 

Ecuador was first to do so, enshrining the constitutional human right to a healthy environment in 1983, and the rights of the environment (nature) within the constitution in 2008.  CDER’s founders consulted on the drafting of Ecuador’s rights of nature constitutional provisions.  The rights of nature recognized in Ecuador’s Constitution include the right of nature to exist, evolve, regenerate, and be restored.

CDER’s Echeverría explains, “The Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights will be one of the very few, if not the only, organization testifying before the Inter-American Court regarding the effects of the climate emergency on nature, and advocating for the integration of the rights of nature in the context of the climate emergency and human rights.” 

He states further, “While environmental human rights will be at the core of the hearing, this is a valuable opportunity to assess the potential of rights of nature in addressing the climate emergency more effectively, especially on issues related to biodiversity loss.”

Ecuador’s Constitutional Court emphasizes that protecting the rights of nature is part of protecting the human right to a healthy environment.  The Constitutional Court has described the interdependence of the elements of nature, including humans, writing:  

Nature is made up of an interrelated, interdependent, and indivisible set of biotic and abiotic elements (ecosystems). Nature is a community of life.  All the elements that make it up, including the human species, are linked and have a function or role.  The properties of each element arise from the interrelationships with the rest of the elements and function as a network.  When an element is affected, the functioning of the system is altered.  When the system changes, it also affects each of its elements.  (Sentence No. ​22-18-IN/21)

Background on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights 

The American Convention on Human Rights came into force in 1978.  It is an international treaty with parties to the treaty largely being countries in Latin America.  The American Convention establishes obligations of member-states to respect the rights and liberties of the Convention, which include rights to privacy, equal protection, and freedom of religion, as well as the “progressive development of economic, social, and cultural rights.”   Further, the American Convention established the Inter-American Court to “interpret and apply the American Convention.”

To learn more about the rights of nature, including rights of nature laws, court rulings, and enforcement efforts around the world, visit CDER’s website: centerforenvironmentalrights.org.

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