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CESCR addresses climate change

CESCR addresses climate change

Unpublished

Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights addresses climate change

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

GENEVA — Last month, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) released a List of Issues for the governments of Germany and Argentina, in which the countries must respond to CESCR’s concerns over their adoption of energy policies that are inadequate to prevent climate change and that fail to meet their obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

CESCR is the UN body that periodically reviews whether governments comply with their obligations under the Covenant. The List of Issues is a set of questions that the CESCR sends to countries regarding each party’s implementation of the agreement.

Climate change is widely recognized to have adverse impacts on human rights. The Paris Climate Agreement adopted in 2015 includes language calling for governments to respect, promote, and take into consideration their human rights obligations when taking action on climate change. This entails both protection from the current impacts of climate change and prevention of future impacts by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and phasing out fossil fuels.

Addressing climate change, called the greatest threat to human rights in the 21st century by Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, requires urgent emissions reductions and support for affected countries to deal with the related impacts. As a human rights issue, human rights institutions have a role to play in evaluating whether governments are taking adequate actions to reduce emissions sufficiently and provide their fair share of support.

The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR), and Germanwatch submitted information to the CESCR regarding the inadequacy of Germany’s climate policies in line with the internationally agreed temperature limit of well below 2°C/1,5°C, with an emphasis on the lack of coal phase-out, the lack of effective policies to address pollution by diesel vehicles, and Germany’s insufficient climate finance to help other countries deal effectively with climate impacts.

For Argentina, CIEL, GI-ESCR, and Observatorio Petrolero Sur submitted information regarding fracking plans for the massive Vaca Muerta shale formation, the human rights violations associated with the project, and how the increased greenhouse gas emissions are incompatible with the country’s obligations under human rights and climate agreements.

“The concerns raised by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights regarding the energy policies of Germany and Argentina highlight that governments can no longer ignore the adverse impacts of fossil fuels on the climate and on human rights — both locally and globally,” said Sébastien Duyck, Senior Attorney at CIEL. “The CESCR makes clear that states have an obligation under UN human rights agreements to prevent and reduce additional emissions of greenhouse gases generated by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels.”

“The UN human rights experts have confirmed that climate change is a pertinent and urgent human rights issue that must be addressed by States in order to comply with their human rights legal obligations,” added Lucy McKernan, Geneva Representative for the GI-ESCR. “These questions to Argentina reveal serious concerns about the compatibility of extractives activities at Vaca Muerta with Argentina’s human rights obligations, and in particular, in relation to the rights of indigenous peoples and climate change mitigation.”

“Climate assessment of Vaca Muerta has been overlooked by the Argentinean government. How a massive export project can cope with Paris Agreement’s objectives is certainly a question that the State needs to clarify,” said Diego di Risio, coordinator for OPSur. “This is an important step for creating international awareness of Vaca Muerta. Outside Argentinean borders the only thing that is known are the reports of resource potential, but few are informed of the impacts that the megaproject is causing. Moreover, due to increasing violence against environmental defenders and indigenous communities registered in the region, further protection is needed.”

“The dramatic consequences of climate change impacts on human wellbeing and existential human rights need to be addressed immediately. The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has taken an important step in this direction with highlighting that the commitments of Germany need to meet its legal obligations under the Covenant” said Christoph Bals, Policy Director at Germanwatch. “The most urgent decision for Germany is the coal phase out and transformation of the transport sector to reach its emissions targets. Also Germany has to provide financial support to help minimizing the scale of impacts and their threat to human rights in poor countries.”

The governments must respond to CESCR’s list of issues before June 2018. The CESCR will review this information, discuss it with the governments, and adopt “concluding observations” in September 2018.

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Notes to Editors:

Contact:

Amanda Kistler, Communications Director, CIEL: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., +001.202.742.5832

Citations from Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights:

Argentina (List of Issues)

  1. Please indicate how the State Party reconciles its objective of exploiting unconventional fossils fuels, such as its project in Vaca Muerta in Neuquén, with its obligation to mitigate climate change as part of international cooperation in the realization of the economic, social and cultural rights.

  2. Please explain what concrete measures the State has taken or intend to take to prevent that the exploitation of unconventional fossils fuels, such as its project in Vaca Muerta in Neuquén, with techniques such as fracking, does not impact negatively on the environment and on the rights to housing, water, health and food of the persons in the region.

Germany (List of Issues)

  1. In the context of the threat posed by climate change to the world-wide enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, please provide information about the national emission reduction targets adopted by Germany under the Paris Agreement, its proposed contributions to the Green Climate Fund, as well as progress achieved towards compliance with these international obligations.

Organizations:

Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)

Since 1989, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) has used the power of law to protect the environment, promote human rights, and ensure a just and sustainable society.

Germanwatch

Since 1992, the environmental and development organization Germanwatch has been committed to sustainable global development within planetary boundaries and with the safeguarding of human rights for all. The worldwide consequences of German politics and economy are of specific interest.

Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR)

GIESCR is an international non-governmental human rights organization which seeks to advance the realization of economic, social and cultural rights throughout the world, tackling the endemic problem of global poverty through a human rights lens.

Observatorio Petrolero Sur (OPSur)

Through research, advocacy and training OPSur seeks to strengthen democratic and fair pathways for energy and development. Under a rights-based approach, it has been working to raise awareness of Vaca Muerta developments since 2011.

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Climate and Environmental Justice

We have advanced rights-based and gender-transformative transition frameworks through research that centres the lived experiences of women and marginalised communities on the frontlines of extractive energy policies, promoting climate and energy frameworks attentive to the social and care-related impacts of transition pathways. We have developed a clear vision for a gender-just transition, firmly rooted in gender and human rights norms, establishing both the legal basis and the direction for the transformative changes our planet and societies urgently need. In particular, the ‘Guiding Principles for Gender Equality and Human Rights in the Energy Transition’, a collective effort built through online consultations, an in-person workshop and multiple rounds of revision with activists, practitioners and experts from around the world, outline a transformative vision for reshaping global energy systems through a human rights and gender equality lens.

Our work recognises that the climate emergency is both an existential threat and an opportunity to reimagine societies built on social, gender, economic and environmental justice. We ground our advocacy in feminist and intersectional principles, prioritising the agency and perspectives of communities in the Global South who have contributed the least to the climate emergency yet face its most devastating consequences. Central to our approach is the understanding that energy is not merely a commodity but a fundamental human right; essential for dignity, health, education, work and the realisation of countless other rights. We challenge approaches to the energy transition that risk replicating the harmful patterns of fossil fuel extraction and, instead, advocate for transformative policies that ensure human rights and gender equality as central to building climate-resilient societies rooted in dignity, justice and planetary well-being.

What's next?

We will continue to challenge approaches that treat energy transition as merely a technical shift, instead positioning it as an opportunity to reimagine economies and societies rooted in dignity for all, with particular attention to communities in the Global South who have contributed least to the climate emergency yet are most exposed to its worst effects.

We will connect community-level evidence and the lived experiences of those on the frontlines of extractive policies to national reform and global norm-setting, breaking down silos between human rights, gender, and climate movements, and advancing a shared vision that recognises just transitions as not only fundamental to achieving climate-resilient and sustainable societies, but as transformative pathways that advance social and gender equality, redistribute power and resources equitably, and ensure that energy systems serve the public good rather than profit.

We will mainstream rights-based and genderjust transition priorities in key multilateral spaces (particularly, within the Just Transition Work Programme and the to-be-developed Just Transition Mechanism, within the UNFCCC) to guarantee that just transitions are advanced at all levels.

We will also translate our work, through strategic advocacy, into at least two concrete policy wins, whether promoted, adopted, implemented, or scaled, in priority countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, or Kenya), ensuring these policies align with human rights standards, centre gender equality, and reflect the needs and views of affected communities.

We will build momentum for the progressive recognition of the right to sustainable energy to shift dominant narratives away from purely extractive solutions that sideline gendered impacts, community participation, and Global South perspectives.

Economic Justice and Climate Finance

Our work has transformed the global discussion on fiscal policy in a more just, emancipatory and sustainable direction. Our approach has combined both high-level, expert contributions within decisionmaking circles, with bold, impactful work on narrative change with the general public.

We have been instrumental in the inclusion of human rights as a guiding principle of the future United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, a multilateral instrument with the potential of raising approx. USD 492 billion per year in public revenues currently foregone to global tax abuse. In the process leading to the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’ decided at FfD4, we proposed and succeeded in creating a specific human rights workstream within the Civil Society Financing for Development Mechanism, which was critical to ensure that explicit commitments on the matter were included in the negotiating outcome. In a context of cutbacks in multilateral institutions, we have amplified the capacities of technical experts, providing rigorous technical support and leveraging our influence to ensure the enactments of groundbreaking standard-setting instruments, such as the 2025 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Statement on Fiscal Policy and Human Rights, and the first ex oficio hearing on the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights on Fiscal and Economic Policies to Address Poverty and Structural Inequality, leading to an upcoming thematic resolution on the matter. We have also bridged the silos between multilateral tax discussions and climate finance debates, promoting ambitious financing commitments to increase international and domestic resource mobilisation during COP 28, 29 and 30.

At the regional level, our engagement with fiscal cooperation platforms such as the Platform for Fiscal Cooperation of Latin America and the Caribbean (PTLAC), where we are member of its Civil Society Consultative Council, and the African Anti-IFFs Policy Tracker, for which we participated in the pilot mission in Ivory Coast together with Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), have been critical in cementing a growing engagement between tax administrations and ministries of finance with international legal experts, exploring actionable and transformative initiatives, such as the taxation of high-net-worth individuals, beneficial ownership registries and corporate countryby-country reports, to be implemented at the international level.

At the local level, our interventions in fiscal reform debates in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria have contributed to shaping legislative outcomes in a more progressive, rights-compliant direction.

As for our leadership in narrative change, we have a measurable track record in delivering tailored, innovative campaigns which have decisively expanded economic justice constituencies by appealing to a broader tent. In Latin America and the Caribbean, we created the ‘Date Cuenta’ campaign, coordinating over 40 organisations across civil society to deliver plain language, innovative messaging connecting progressive fiscal reforms to the financing of health, education and social protection. ‘Date Cuenta’ generated over 55 original campaign messages that were tailored to the realities of seven priority countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Honduras) and disseminated in Spanish, Portuguese and English. In doing so, we convened more than 65 online co-creation workshops with partners, coordinating a unified communications strategy which combined digital outreach, press and media coverage, and collaboration with influencers. Ultimately, ‘Date Cuenta’ resulted in more than 60,000 interactions on social media, coverage in major regional and international media outlets, including El País, Deutsche Welle, Bloomberg and France 24, and the participation of at least 63 social media influencers through 58 dedicated publications. In collaboration with Fundación Gabo and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, we also organised a two-day workshop in Bogota with 20 journalists from 13 countries, building a regional network trained in a human rights-based approach to fiscal policy that has since generated published media coverage on outlets such as La Diaria, Ciper, El Diario Ar and Milenio. Through ‘Date Cuenta’ and our regional advocacy, we strengthened civil society engagement in key processes, including the Financing for Development track and FfD4, co-organised highlevel dialogues with states and civil society from Latin America and Africa.

What's next?

We will shape the UN Tax Convention and its Protocols so they embed human rights principles, and we will stay engaged through follow-up processes (including the expected Conference of the Parties) to support effective implementation. We will keep linking tax and climate finance so that new resources mobilised through fiscal cooperation are channelled to adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage, in line with UNFCCC commitments.

Public Services for Care Societies

We have translated participatory research into accountability and policy outcomes.

In Ivory Coast, our work with Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains and affected communities since 2023 exposed how privatisation and lack of accountability restrict access to quality healthcare. It contributed to the closure of 1,022 illegal private health centres, an executive instrument strengthening the regulation of private hospitals across the country, and the creation of a permanent complaints management committee in healthcare through a bylaw issued by the prefect of Gagnoa. Partners engaged through this process also advanced concrete improvements at facility level: members of the Gagnoa Midwives Association who took part in the participatory action research pooled resources to renovate the neonatal unit of the Regional Hospital, and the Director of the Gagnoa General Hospital launched an action plan to expand services and improve patient reception, with the facility receiving the award for best hospital in the country in 2025.

In Kenya, our research with the Mathare Education Taskforce documented the absence of public schools and the expansion of private provision, evidencing impacts on households and caregivers and strengthening demands for free, quality public education. This work contributed to stronger community agency and collective organisation, alongside ongoing strategies ranging from communications to litigation to secure a public school in the area, some involving GI-ESCR and others led independently.

Across Africa, this work is complemented by a multi-country study examining the human rights implications of austerity in education and health, including how regressive fiscal policies, rising debt burdens and persistent underinvestment undermine the financing and delivery of public services.

In Latin America, from 29 November to 2 December 2021, over a thousand representatives from over one hundred countries, from grassroots movements, advocacy, human rights, and development organisations, feminist movements, trade unions, and other civil society organisations, met in Santiago, Chile, and virtually, to discuss the critical role of public services for our future. Following the meeting, the Santiago Declaration on Public Services was adopted to demand universal access to quality, gender-transformative and equitable public services as the foundation of a fair and just society.

We are currently advancing work on care systems, linking public services and fiscal justice through integrated research, advocacy and communications, including a regional campaign framing care as a collective responsibility requiring sustained public investment.

What's next?

In Ivory Coast, we will evaluate and strengthen the complaints management committee and position it as a replicable model for other health facilities. In Kenya, we will support the Mathare community to co-design a model public school for Mabatini and Ngei wards, grounded in human rights standards. Building on our multi-country austerity study, we will drive national advocacy on financing for education and health: advancing reforms in Ghana; launching a fiscal policy and public services financing agenda in Kenya through the CESCR process and targeted coalition work; and, in Nigeria, using the new tax acts in force since 1 January 2026 to catalyse a national accountability campaign for adequately funded, quality public services. In Latin America, we will amplify locally led care pilots across 8 countries and turn lessons into influence—advancing care policies that strengthen care organisations, protect care workers’ rights, support unpaid caregivers, include disability and family networks, and redistribute care more equitably.