The ICJ has joined several hundred organizations working to defend human rights, the environment, and climate justice in a bold declaration setting out a vision and objectives for addressing the climate crisis and the devastating human rights and environmental impact of catastrophic climate change.
The Declaration was adopted at a gathering of the the Peoples’ Summit on Climate, Rights and Human Survival in New York on 18-19 September, which brought together some 200 representatives of Indigenous Peoples, workers, academia, environmental and human rights groups, including the ICJ.
The Declaration warns that “the climate emergency threatens human survival, the environment and the enjoyment of all human rights, for present and future generations.”
It emphasizes that governments and corporations bear the primary responsibility for acting to address and reverse the drivers of climate change.
The signatories to the Declaration agreed to 10 types of actions, including, among others, placing human rights at the core of climate activism, demanding effective access to justice for individuals and communities whose rights are impacted by the climate crisis, and support for environmental human rights defenders.
Universal-Peoples Summit Declaration CC-Advocacy-2019-ENG (full declaration in PDF)Advocacy