Oxfam reaction to the Inter-American Human Rights Court declaring tackling climate a legal government duty

In response to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights decision today setting out governments’ obligations in regard to the climate crisis, Gloria García-Parra, Oxfam's regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean said:  
 
“The Inter-American Court has sounded the alarm, declaring a climate emergency and for the first time pronouncing that governments have a legal obligation to ensure the right to a safe climate. It stated that governments must protect present and future generations of people, as well as nature and other species from dangerous human-caused emissions.” 

“Oxfam has consistently insisted on the need to address climate and inequality in tandem. We are delighted that the Court has confirmed this is a legal obligation, declaring that there must be no disproportionate burdens caused by climate change for anyone, whether in the present and for future generations.”   

“The Court states that governments must adopt binding emissions reduction targets with specific deadlines, based on their historic contributions, with those States most responsible adopting the most ambitious targets. States must take urgent and effective steps to regulate, supervise, and monitor corporations within their borders to minimize their adverse impacts on climate change. 

“The Court also observed that States are responsible for the impacts of carbon emissions within their borders have on the human rights of people wherever they are. And that governments have a legal obligation to cooperate with other countries, including by providing technical and financial assistance to States and peoples with less resources. The Court confirmed that governments must ensure people affected by climate harms have the right to a remedy that holds to account those responsible for climate harms, even if those people are in a different country.”  

“The Court confirms that States must have a specific set of strong protections for environmental defenders. It recognizes that governments must respect and take into account traditional, ancestral, and local knowledge systems, including those of Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendent communities, in climate decision-making.”  

“The Court has confirmed binding requirements in international law that go beyond those contained in the Paris Agreement. Governments in the Americas must immediately review their climate plans and amend them to comply with this decision. If they do not, it is clear that communities around the world – not only in the Americas - have a powerful new tool to challenge their governments failures to protect their human rights and the climate.”