News

Salma Waheedi, Lecturer on Law and Executive Director of the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World at Harvard Law School, together with Abadir Ibrahim, Associate Director of Harvard’s Human Rights Program, and Angela Hefti, Assistant Professor of Law at Florida International University, co-authored a written submission to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, in response to the Commission’s call for substantive inputs on the draft General Comment on Article 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The submission argues that the African Charter protects the right to a healthy climate.

The submission clarifies the scope of Article 24 of the African Charter, which guarantees the right to a satisfactory environment. The authors argue that, because climate change undermines the enjoyment of that right, a right to a healthy climate is protected by extension under Article 24. To give effect to this right, the submission calls on the Commission to clarify states’ obligations to respect, protect, promote, and fulfill it under Article 24 of the Charter. The submission further highlights states’ duty to ensure accountability for climate-related harms, including through seeking reparations for transboundary harm attributable to major fossil fuel producing states.

The General Comment will constitute an authoritative interpretation of Article 24 by the African Commission, providing normative guidance on the scope and content of the right to a satisfactory, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment as guaranteed under the African Charter and interpreted through the jurisprudence of the Commission and other relevant regional and international human rights standards.

Click here to read the full submission.