UN experts welcome UN General Assembly resolution supporting world court’s climate change ruling

GENEVA – UN experts* today hailed the adoption of the UN General Assembly resolution welcoming the unanimous Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on States’ obligations on climate change.

“The General Assembly resolution regarding the Court’s Opinion is vital to ensuring justice and the rule of law globally,” the experts said.

The resolution is particularly important in the current geopolitical context, which has led to global fuel and food price spikes and insecurity. States are also experiencing increasingly widespread impacts of the inter-linked planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, toxic pollution and economic inequality. “This is a fundamental step forward for the protection of peace, self-determination, sustainable development and human wellbeing for all,” the experts said.

They stressed that the new resolution establishes an international process to follow up on the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion. They supported the request for a UN Secretary General’s report on “ways to advance compliance with all obligations clarified by the Court, taking into account the best available science and possible gaps in multilateral efforts to address the adverse effects of climate change in accordance with international law” and continued discussion on the implementation of the Opinion at the General Assembly.

“We welcome the clear determination of the 141 States who voted in favour of the resolution to translate the Court’s findings into enhanced multilateral cooperation,” the experts said.

“We urge all States to rely on the ICJ findings in the upcoming UN climate negotiations, the second Conference on Transitioning away from Fossil Fuels, UN biodiversity and desertification conferences, and in ongoing UN treaty negotiations on plastic pollution, protection of persons in the event of disasters, and on business and human rights.”

The experts also emphasised that the ICJ Advisory Opinion is relevant under the International Seabed Authority, considering the foreseeable, significant and likely irreversible harm to the environment from deep-seabed mining.

“States have clear human rights obligations in relation to the General Assembly’s call to ensure full, meaningful and equal participation in decision-making on climate action, in particular for Indigenous Peoples, peasants and small-scale fishers, people of African descent, women and girls, children and youth, persons with disabilities, people in vulnerable situations, and human rights defenders. These obligations include ensuring access to information and access to justice,” the experts said.

“Human rights – particularly the right to a healthy environment – provide indispensable legal benchmarks for stringent due diligence obligations for States and for businesses responsibility, to protect the climate system, nature, the ocean, soil and human health.”

The experts called for international cooperation to halt the compounding harm caused by fossil fuels, ensure a just transition and provide effective remedies from climate harm for the benefit of present and future generations.

They expressed full commitment to supporting States, organisations, social movements and authorities at all levels in the implementation of the ICJ Advisory Opinion.