Human rights law as a gap-filler: The invisibility of climate vulnerability in international climate change law

Abstract

This chapter explores the prospects of human rights law to fill the gaps left by international climate change law on loss and damage with respect to climate change impacts experienced by Indigenous peoples in developed states. Departing from a series of cases lodged by Indigenous peoples before regional and international human rights courts and bodies, the chapter analyses the overlap between human rights interferences stemming from climate change and climate change loss and damage. It demonstrates the potential of human rights law in this respect, highlighting possibilities in loss and damage litigation, as well as the incorporation of loss and damage into the interpretation of human rights law by international oversight bodies and mechanisms. It also reflects on the limits of human rights law to this end, considering issues of distributive justice, piecemeal progress, and framing.