From Input to Impact: How WYCJ’s Campaigners Are Influencing International Climate Justice

By Valeria Flores Romo and Nischal Pokharel*

Introduction

The Climate Crisis is no longer viewed solely as an environmental challenge. Increasingly, it is recognised as a matter of human rights, intergenerational equity, and legal responsibility. From the Amazon to the Himalayas, lawyers, judges, and community justice workers are finding themselves on the frontlines of one of the most urgent challenges of our time. Yet the legal tools available to them, and the conditions in which they must use them, vary enormously across regions.

Earlier this year, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers opened a call for inputs on the role of justice systems in addressing the climate crisis. WYCJ's Latin American and Asian fronts submitted contributions on the role of lawyers, judges, and community justice workers, highlighting the gap between legal frameworks and their effective implementation.

Constitutional Recognition and Its Limits: The Asian Front Submission

The Asian Front’s submission highlighted how countries across Asia have constitutionally recognised environmental rights; significant barriers continue to limit their effective realisation. States such as Nepal,Pakistan, Bhutan, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines explicitly recognise the right to a healthy environment, while courts inIndia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia have interpreted existing fundamental rights to include environmental protection, transforming climate and environmental protection into legally enforceable obligations.

Constitutional recognition has been strengthened by innovative procedural mechanisms. Public Interest Litigation (PIL) frameworks in Asian jurisdictions have expanded standing rules, enabling civil society organisations and affected communities to challenge environmental harm before the courts. Specialised remedies, such as the Philippines’ Writ of Kalikasan, alongside institutions like India’s National Green Tribunal and Bhutan’s Green Bench, demonstrate how legal systems are addressing increasingly complex climate disputes.

Despite this, significant barriers continue to hinder the realisation of climate justice. The Asian Front submission highlighted challenges such as limited climate-related judicial training, political pressures on courts, regulatory rollbacks, resource constraints, and shrinking civic space. Climate lawyers and environmental defenders often face intimidation, inadequate funding, and institutional obstacles that restrict their ability to advocate effectively for vulnerable communities.

The submission also emphasised the vital role of community justice workers in connecting frontline communities with formal legal systems through legal assistance, evidence gathering, and access-to-justice support. However, these actors frequently operate with insufficient resources and protection. Ultimately, arguing that constitutional recognition is insufficient; meaningful climate justice requires stronger enforcement, enhanced judicial capacity, broader access to justice, and greater protection for environmental advocates.

Advisory Proceedings as Participatory Tools: The Latin American Front submission

In Latin America, one of the most significant recent developments in climate law has been the use of advisory proceedings before international courts as a genuinely participatory process. The advisory opinion issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (OC-32/25) and the opinion of the International Court of Justice on Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change, both delivered in 2025, clarified that States have binding obligations in the face of the climate emergency and affirmed that the right to a healthy environment is inextricably linked to the rights to life, health, food, water, and housing.

These outcomes were the result of unprecedented participation. The IACtHR received over 260 written contributions and heard from more than 180 delegations. In the ICJ proceedings, a People's Assembly brought together indigenous representatives and climate-affected communities, whose testimonies were systematised in the People's Petition and incorporated into the formal legal arguments presented before the Court. In our joint submission with Clínica DHDA of the Universidad del Estado de Amazonas, we argued that lawyers serve as translators between lived experience and legal claims, without replacing the voices of those most affected.

Lawyers in the region, however, face serious obstacles. In Amazonian communities, access to justice is constrained by geographic distance, institutional racism, and resource asymmetry between communities and extractive industries. In some jurisdictions, governments have passed legislation retroactively shielding polluters from climate liability. Environmental lawyers themselves are targeted, as Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor noted in her 2024 report Tipping Points, environmental defenders constitute the most attacked category among all defenders killed since 2015.

In line with the case of Sales Pimenta v. Brazil case before the IACtHR, which is a landmark IACtHR condemnation of Brazil's structural impunity, originating in the 1982 assassination of a labor lawyer. Our submission recommended that the Special Rapporteur formally recognise environmental lawyers as a specific sub-category within the mandate for the protection of human rights defenders.

From Lived Experience to Legal Action: Insights from the Special Rapporteur Consultation

Participation in the Special Rapporteur’s consultation provided valuable insights into how international human rights mechanisms view the role of lawyers, climate advocates, and activists in responding to the climate crisis. A recurring theme throughout the discussions was the importance of these actors as bridges between affected communities and legal or policy-making institutions. While climate change impacts are experienced locally, addressing them requires engagement with national, regional, and international frameworks. Lawyers, alongside climate advocates and grassroots activists, play a crucial role in translating lived experiences into legal claims, policy recommendations, and advocacy strategies that can influence decision-makers and strengthen accountability.

The consultation highlighted the persistent barriers vulnerable groups face in accessing climate justice. Financial and procedural barriers, coupled with limited access to information, restrict meaningful participation of youth, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and frontline communities in climate governance.

Another key takeaway was the growing recognition of young people as active agents of change. Through litigation, advocacy, research, community mobilisation, and policy engagement, youth are increasingly shaping climate governance and accountability efforts.

Concluding Remarks

What emerges from both submissions is a shared tension. The legal architecture for climate justice exists as constitutional rights to a healthy environment, innovative procedural mechanisms, and landmark advisory opinions that are already reshaping how states understand their obligations. Yet the structural conditions for lawyers, judges, and community justice workers to use these tools freely, safely, and on behalf of those who need them most are frequently absent.

The Special Rapporteur's upcoming report is an opportunity to close this gap by recognising environmental lawyers and community justice workers as categories requiring specific protection, by calling for mandatory climate training in national judicial education systems, and by advocating for funding mechanisms that make climate justice accessible. The Special Rapporteur’s forthcoming report presents an important opportunity to advance this agenda by promoting accessible justice systems, stronger judicial capacity, and meaningful participation for youth, Indigenous Peoples, and climate-affected communities. Ultimately, achieving climate justice will require not only stronger laws, but also empowered people capable of turning those laws into lasting change. This report is a chance to make those efforts count.

Read the Latin American Front’s and Asian Front’s submissions.

*Valeria Flores Romo is a law student at Universidad Panamericana from Aguascalientes, Mexico and Research and Advocacy Lead for the Latin American Front of World's Youth for Climate Justice (WYCJ). Nischal Pokharel is a Mechanical Engineer, renewable energy professional, and climate justice advocate from Nepal. He serves as the Membership Engagement Coordinator of the Asian Front of WYCJ.