Global ICJ Advisory Opinion Anniversary Festival: One Year of Raising Ambition and Unlocking Accountability
23 July 2026
Join the Global Action-versary to commemorate the first anniversary of the groundbreaking climate ruling from the world’s highest court!
Let’s celebrate 1 year of climate justice history at the International Court of Justice!
On 23 July 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered a historic climate ruling outlining States' obligations under international law regarding climate change. The Court set out the applicable law governing States' duties to address climate change and the legal consequences of inaction. The ICJ advisory opinion on climate change is the result of a Pacific-inspired global campaign that centred on climate justice, human rights, and accountability through the art of storytelling and legal advocacy, prioritising frontline voices and progressive legal arguments.
For the first anniversary of the climate ruling being delivered, the alliance driving this movement (Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, and World’s Youth for Climate Justice) is assembling an around-the-world online session!
More information on each of the regional sessions, including the option to register, you will find soon on this page!
Get involved!
Join the Global Action-versary: Let us know how your organisation is planning to mark the anniversary by filling out this form.
Become an Action-versary Festival Partner: Join us as a Festival Partner to help amplify the anniversary, showcase implementation efforts, and demonstrate the growing global momentum behind the Advisory Opinion. Please fill out this form to become a Festival Partner.
Host a regional or national event: Plans are underway to host regional webinars focusing on the implications of the ICJ AO. Should your organisation be interested in hosting a webinar, please reach out to Nicole Ponce (nicole@wy4cj.org). We can add it to the website's global tracker and help get the audience and tell a Action-versary story!
Join the Global Video Campaign to capture ways the ICJ AO has been implemented; find more info down below.
Be part of the social media moment on 23 July for the ICJ AO anniversary! We will shortly distribute a social media communications pack to assist with these efforts.
Contribute to the Global Implementation Toolkit: This event will also be the launch of the first-ever, much-needed, globally crowdsourced Implementation Toolkit. We know that many organisations have published resources on the AO, and we would like to create a one-stop shop for AO-related resources to help more people find them. If you have any that you would like to see on there, please share them with us via Nicole Ponce (nicole@wy4cj.org).
Tell us how you have used the ICJ advisory opinion so far!
We are marking the ICJ AO’s first anniversary on 23 July 2026 with a series of short videos to capture how the ICJ ruling has influenced climate action, advocacy and litigation worldwide. The aim is a set of personal and quotable clips that show this ruling is a living tool, one that a broad coalition fought for and that people are already using, which we can post around the anniversary and reuse in the run-up to COP31.
We would love to receive footage in which you talk about the impact of the ICJ’s climate ruling for this! Please make a video (or videos if you use multiple takes) in which you answer the following two questions:
How have you seen the ICJ’s climate ruling make a difference in your work or in that of others? This can concern examples from both inside and outside the courtroom.
What needs to happen next to implement the ICJ’s ruling further? What would meaningful implementation look like to you?
Please send your videos to doga@wy4cj.org and quint@wy4cj.org.To help you, we have prepared instructions to ensure your video(s) are of optimal quality!