Program Associate Director Abadir Ibrahim Co-Authors Amicus Brief on Climate Obligations Before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights
On March 30, 2026, Abadir Ibrahim, Associate Director of the Harvard Human Rights Program—with Salma Waheedi, Executive Director of the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World, and Angela Hefti, Assistant Professor of Law at Florida International University—co-led an interdisciplinary coalition of 16 amici curiae in the submission of a brief before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights addressing States’ obligations in the context of the global climate crisis. Drawing on holistic and intersectional interpretations of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the brief urges the Court to clarify States’ obligations in responding to climate change, including recognizing a right to a healthy climate and the rights of nature under the African Charter.
The drafting and coordination of the amicus brief were led by Ibrahim, Waheedi, and Hefti, who convened an interdisciplinary group of climate and human rights scholars and experts to contribute to the advisory proceedings initiated by the Pan African Lawyers Union, which asked the Court to clarify the obligations of African States under the African Charter in addressing climate change. The request raised a set of foundational legal questions, including how existing Charter rights—particularly the right to a healthy environment—apply to climate-related harms, what duties States owe to prevent and respond to these harms, and how these obligations extend across borders and over time. In particular, the proceedings invite the Court to address the relationship between climate change and a range of protected rights under the Charter, including both individual and collective rights of peoples. They also raise questions concerning State responsibility for both domestic and transboundary environmental harm, with the brief contending that States whose residents’ rights have been harmed by climate impacts have not only the right to seek reparations from States that are responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, but may also have an obligation to do so—especially if they are unable to finance mitigation and adaptation measures themselves.
The amicus brief argues that the right to a healthy climate is inherent in Article 24 of the African Charter, which guarantees the right to a satisfactory environment. This argument is situated within a wider interpretation of the Charter’s environmental, collective, and normative commitments, emphasizing that recognizing a “healthy climate” does not expand the Charter, but rather clarifies the full scope of States’ existing obligations in light of contemporary environmental conditions. Building on this interpretation, the brief outlines a framework of State duties, including obligations to mitigate emissions, prevent and regulate environmental harm, oversee the conduct of public and private actors, and ensure access to information, participation, and effective remedies. It further emphasizes that these obligations extend to extraterritorial harms, reflecting the transboundary nature of climate change and the interconnectedness of State conduct.
The submission also advances a framework for recognizing the rights of nature within the African human rights system. Drawing on the Charter’s text, its legislative history, and regional legal traditions, the amici argue for a holistic approach in which duties owed to the environment give rise to corresponding rights held by nature itself, consistent with Indigenous and traditional African normative systems. In addition, the brief underscores the importance of intersectionality in interpreting climate-related rights, situating climate harm within broader systems of historical, structural, and intersecting inequality, highlighting how such harms are shaped by overlapping forms of marginalization.
The advisory proceedings before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights mark a pivotal moment in clarifying States’ obligations in response to the climate crisis under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Court’s interpretation is expected not only to shape the evolution of climate-related rights within the African human rights system, but also to contribute to the broader development of international law on the right to a healthy climate, the protection of nature, and intersectional approaches to climate-related harms.
Click here to read the full submission.
