CHR-NI-2016-0001 Supplementary Memorandum by Resource Person, Katherine Lofts
The IACHR denied the petition on the grounds that the petitioners had not provided
sufficient information for the IACHR to determine whether the alleged facts would
characterize a violation of rights protected by the American Declaration of the Rights
and Duties of Man. The IACHR nevertheless allowed a special hearing in regard to
the petition.
(2) Gbemre v. Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd. and
Others
Decision date: 2005
Reporter information: FHC/B/CS/53/05
Status: Application granted
Jurisdictions: Nigeria (Federal Court of Nigeria)
A Nigerian federal court ruled that oil companies must stop flaring gas in the Niger
Delta, holding that the practice of gas flaring is unconstitutional because it violates
the guaranteed fundamental rights to life and dignity of human persons contained in
the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the African Charter on
Human and Peoples Rights. Amongst their claims, the Applicant – Jonah Gbemre, a
representative of the Iwherekan community in the Niger Delta – stated that gas
flaring leads to the emission of carbon dioxide, which contributes to adverse climate
change.
(3) Petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Seeking Relief
from Violations of the Rights of Arctic Athabaskan Peoples Resulting from
Rapid Arctic Warming and Melting Caused by Emissions of Black Carbon by
Canada
Filing date: 2013
Status: Filed
Jurisdictions: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
This petition was submitted by the Arctic Athabaskan Council on behalf of all Arctic
Athabaskan Peoples of the Arctic regions of Canada and the United States against
Canada for its failure to adequately regulate black carbon emissions. Black carbon
is a pollutant with severe climate-forcing effects. The petition links the emission of
black carbon to climate change, and alleges that the changing climate threatens the
Athabaskan people’s human rights, including their rights to enjoy the benefits of
their culture, to property, to the preservation of health, and to their own means of
subsistence as enshrined in the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of
Man.
(4) Urgenda Foundation v. Kingdom of the Netherlands
Date: 2015
Reporter information: [2015] HAZA C/09/00456689
Status: Granted; Upheld on Appeal (2018)
Jurisdictions: Netherlands (The Hague District Court and Court of Appeals)
The Urgenda Foundation, along with 900 Dutch citizens, sued the Dutch government
on the basis that it had not taken sufficient action to prevent global climate change.
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