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Contact with chambers should be made through the Practice Management Team. They are happy to discuss client requirements and provide further information on such matters as the expertise and experience of individual members, fees, working practices and languages spoken. We have members able to work in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Greek and Chinese (Mandarin).

Outside working hours, a member of our team is always available to be contacted on matters of an urgent nature. Contact should be made using the Chambers main number or email.

Visiting Twenty Essex: Our London premises welcome guests at No 23 Essex Street. Step-free access is available via Milford Lane, with elevator access to all floors in No 23.

Singapore office: For client enquiries please contact our Head of BD, Asia Pacific, Katie-Beth Jones, and for all other queries please contact Lynn Quek. Out-of-office-hours calls will automatically be diverted to our practice management team in London.

London

20 Essex Street
London
WC2R 3AL

[email protected]
t: +44 20 7842 1200

Singapore

28 Maxwell Road
#02-03 Maxwell Chambers Suites
Singapore 069120

[email protected]
t: +65 62257230

Contact

Contact with chambers should be made through the Practice Management Team. They are happy to discuss client requirements and provide further information on such matters as the expertise and experience of individual members, fees, working practices and languages spoken. We have members able to work in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Greek and Chinese (Mandarin).

Outside working hours, a member of our team is always available to be contacted on matters of an urgent nature. Contact should be made using the Chambers main number or email.

Visiting Twenty Essex: Our London premises welcome guests at No 23 Essex Street. Step-free access is available via Milford Lane, with elevator access to all floors in No 23.

Singapore office: For client enquiries please contact our Head of BD, Asia Pacific, Katie-Beth Jones, and for all other queries please contact Lynn Quek. Out-of-office-hours calls will automatically be diverted to our practice management team in London.

London

20 Essex Street
London
WC2R 3AL

[email protected]
t: +44 20 7842 1200

Singapore

28 Maxwell Road
#02-03 Maxwell Chambers Suites
Singapore 069120

[email protected]
t: +65 62257230

< Back To News
15/07/2025

Inter-American Court of Human Rights issues Advisory Opinion on Climate Emergency and Human Rights

On 3 July 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued an historic Advisory Opinion on Climate Emergency and Human Rights. Initially requested by the governments of Chile and Colombia in January 2023, the Court received over 260 written briefs, followed by public hearings in Barbados and Brazil in April and May 2024.

Monica Feria-Tinta acted in the oral and written proceedings, for the Institute of Small and Micro States.

The published Advisory Opinion confirms two interesting aspects of the Court’s approach.

The first concerns its scope. The Court held that the obligations set out in the Opinion apply to all members of the Organisation of American States, Canada and the United States included.

Second, the Court took an ecocentric approach in its analysis, recognising the State obligations to protect nature as the basis of the obligations of States to reverse the climate crisis. The Court cited the 1982 World Charter for Nature and other developments in international law supporting an ecocentric approach. In a critical passage of the Opinion, the Court stated (at [279]):

“Ecosystems are complex and interdependent systems in which each component plays an essential role for the stability and continuity of the whole. The degradation or alteration of these components may have a negative cascading effect with impacts on other species as well as human beings, as part of such systems. Recognition of Nature’s right to conserve its essential ecological processes contributes to strengthening a truly sustainable development model that respects planetary limits and ensures the availability of crucial resources for present and future generations. Making progress towards a paradigm that recognizes rights inherent in the ecosystems is fundamental for the protection of their long-term integrity and functionality, and it provides coherent and effective legal tools in relation to the triple planetary crisis to prevent existential harm before the latter becomes irreversible.”

Download the English language text: https://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/opiniones/seriea_32_en.pdf
Also: ESP | POR 

Further information on the proceedings can be found at: https://corteidh.or.cr/tablas/OC-32-2025/index-eng.html

Relevant members
Monica Feria-Tinta
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