The Americas

Aitana Rosas Linhard of the Earth Law Center reflects on the 2025 Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) issuing of the historic Advisory Opinion OC-32/25, which affirmed for the first time that nations have clear obligations under human rights law to confront the climate emergency and formally recognized Nature as a subject of rights. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (the Court) is one of the world’s three major regional human rights tribunals (alongside the European and African human rights courts) and serves as the judicial branch of the Organization of American States (OAS), an organization which promotes peace, justice, and cooperation across the Americas. The IACtHR, together with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), is tasked with ensuring State compliance with the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR). The IACtHR’s 2025 advisory opinion came in response to a joint request from Chile and Colombia, two countries that sought legal clarity on the responsibilities of nations in confronting escalating ecological threats. The over 200-page opinion frames the climate crisis in part as a human rights obligation rather than merely an issue of politics and policy and draws on principles of international human rights law to integrate concepts such as sustainable development and planetary boundaries, and affirms the Rights of Nature. The 2025 judgment affirms that nations will fail to meet their climate obligations without a transformative paradigm shift that places Nature at the center and holds governments accountable for protecting the rights of their inhabitants, both human and non-human.