Opportunity for the event:  

Advisory opinions requested from the International Court of Justice (State obligations in relation of climate change), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Advisory Opinion of Chile and Colombia), and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (Advisory Opinion No. 31) have been key processes in recent years for the advancement of climate justice at the global level. Advisory Opinions (AOs) are essential for clarifying the obligations of States, including the relation with businesses, with regard to climate change and its relationship to the protection of human rights. This represents a key moment to address and continue reflecting on the triple planetary crisis, and its solutions.

 Given the particularities of each AO, a joint analysis of the three processes is essential to contribute to the knowledge, understanding, reflection, and effective use of the results of these Advisory Opinions. In particular, and as this has already been evidenced by the ITLOS opinion, the outcome of these decisions fills existing gaps in international law and will allow for a legal redefinition of what States and companies should do to halt climate change and advance effective actions to mitigate, adapt and address the losses and damages generated. This is especially important given that, to date, existing actions fall far short of what is required.  

Type of event: this will be the first and opening event in a series to discuss the impact of advisory opinions on climate issues. It will be held in collaboration between the Laboratory for Environmental and Climate Justice (LabJAC – external office of the UN Special Rapporteur Astrid Puentes), the Observatory of the Inter-American Human Rights System of the National University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City’s Heinrich Böll Foundation office, and the International Network on Climate Change, Energy, and Human Rights (RICEDH). 

Date: Monday, August 25, 2025. 

Location: Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City Campus.

Format: hybrid (in-person and online broadcast with simultaneous translation into English-Spanish). 

Organizers: Astrid Puentes Riaño, LabJAC-Ibero and UN Special Rapporteur; Florian Huber, Heinrich Böll Foundation México and Henry Jiménez Guanipa, International Network on Climate Change, Energy, and Human Rights (RICEDH). 

With the support of: Eduardo Ferrer Mac Gregor Poisot, Retired Judge ICHR and academic at IIJ-UNAM; María Elisa Franco Martín del Campo, Observatory of the Inter-American Human Rights System-UNAM; Marisol Anglés Hernández, Postgraduate Law Program UNAM; and, Andrea Domínguez Noriega, Alliance of Environmental Legal Clinics of Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Target audience: academics, students, activists, and civil society organizations with an interest in environmental and climate justice; organizations that support litigation in the region; environmental legal clinics; public officials who have an obligation to know and disseminate such resolutions in Mexico; and members of the judiciary.

Agenda for the day: (transversally, the impacts on the rights of children, migrants and people in situations of mobility, traditional communities, and Indigenous Peoples will be analyzed)

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