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MATERIALS COMPILED PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 65, PARAGRAPH 2 OF
THE STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
(Request for an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice pursuant to
General Assembly Resolution 77/276)
Introductory Note
30 June 2023
The Request
1. Under agenda item 70 of the seventy-seventh session of the General Assembly entitled “Report
of the International Court of Justice”, the representative of Vanuatu, on behalf of Algeria,
Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh,
Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bulgaria, Cabo Verde, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Eritrea, Estonia, Fiji,
Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana,
Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Kiribati, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius,
Mexico, Micronesia (Federated States of), Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique,
Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway,
Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Rwanda,
Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Serbia, Seychelles,
Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname,
Sweden, Switzerland, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Tuvalu,
Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
United Republic of Tanzania, Vanuatu, Viet Nam and State of Palestine, submitted a draft
resolution entitled “Request for an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the
obligations of States in respect of climate change”, issued on 1 March 2023 as document
A/77/L.58. Subsequently, the following countries joined in sponsoring the draft resolution:
Afghanistan, Armenia, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana,
Burundi, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Haiti, Indonesia, Israel,
Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mali, Mongolia, Niger, Peru, the Philippines, Poland,
the Republic of Korea, San Marino, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Uruguay.
2. On 29 March 2023, at the sixty-fourth plenary meeting, the General Assembly adopted
resolution 77/276 by consensus. The question contained in the resolution, upon which the
International Court of Justice (“the Court”) is requested to render an advisory opinion, reads as
follows:
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The General Assembly,
…
Decides, in accordance with Article 96 of the Charter of the United Nations,
to request the International Court of Justice, pursuant to Article 65 of the Statute of
the Court, to render an advisory opinion on the following question:
“Having particular regard to the Charter of the United Nations, the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement, the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea, the duty of due diligence, the rights recognized
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the principle of prevention of
significant harm to the environment and the duty to protect and preserve the
marine environment,
(a) What are the obligations of States under international law to ensure the
protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment from
anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases for States and for present and future
generations;
(b) What are the legal consequences under these obligations for States
where they, by their acts and omissions, have caused significant harm to the
climate system and other parts of the environment, with respect to:
(i) States, including, in particular, small island developing States, which
due to their geographical circumstances and level of development, are
injured or specially affected by or are particularly vulnerable to the
adverse effects of climate change?
(ii) Peoples and individuals of the present and future generations affected
by the adverse effects of climate change?”
3. The certified true copies of the resolution, in English and French, were transmitted to the Court
under cover of a letter dated 12 April 2023 from the Secretary-General of the United Nations to
the President of the Court. In his letter, the Secretary-General informed the President of the
Court that, pursuant to Article 65, paragraph 2, of the Statute of the Court, the United Nations
Secretariat would prepare a dossier containing a collection of all documents that are likely to
throw light upon these questions, to be transmitted to the Court in due course.
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Framework of the Dossier
4. Given the broad nature of the subject of climate change and the large amount of documentation
available from the relevant intergovernmental processes of the United Nations that refer to or
touch upon climate-related matters, the selection of documents included in this dossier was based
on the documents, instruments and principles referenced in General Assembly resolution 77/276,
including its preamble and the question put to the Court.
5. The Dossier is divided into eight parts, as follows: (I) request by the General Assembly for an
advisory opinion of the Court, (II) multilateral treaties, (III) scientific reports, (IV) development
of international law, (V) protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment,
(VI) outcomes of United Nations conferences and follow-up processes and related documents,
(VII) law of the sea and (VIII) human rights and climate change. The approach taken in each
part is set out in more detail below.
6. As a general matter, the approach taken in selecting the documents is as follows. In instances
where the information is reproduced in more than one document, only the most recent or
comprehensive document has been included in the Dossier. Where the relevant information is
contained in a longer document, only the extract of the relevant section has been included in the
Dossier. Documents that set out individual Member or Observer State positions have not been
included. In general, documents relating to procedural matters have also not been included.
Part I: Request by the General Assembly for an Advisory Opinion of the Court
7. This section contains documents on the procedural steps taken with respect to the adoption of
General Assembly resolution 77/276, including the verbatim record of the meeting of the
General Assembly at which resolution 77/276 was adopted.
Part II: Multilateral treaties
8. This part contains multilateral treaties referred to in General Assembly resolution 77/276. In
addition, it also includes multilateral treaties referenced in the resolutions of the General
Assembly and Human Rights Council that are referred to in General Assembly resolution
77/276. The multilateral treaties, including any amendments, annexes or protocols thereto, are
set out according to the following subject matters:
(A) Climate change
(B) Desertification
(C) Biological diversity
(D) Protection of the ozone layer
(E) Law of the sea
(F) Human rights
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9. Relevant information relating to the date of adoption and entry into force of the treaties and
corrections or rectifications of the texts of the treaties, where applicable, is also indicated.
Part III: Scientific reports
10. Section A contains reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”), as
referenced in General Assembly resolution 77/276, comprising summaries of select reports of
Working Groups I, II and III, IPCC special reports and the Synthesis Report of the IPCC Sixth
Assessment Report. This section includes reports referred to in the Sharm el-Sheikh
Implementation Plan adopted at the most recent United Nations Climate Change Conference held
in November 2022.
11. Section B contains the adaptation gap and emissions gap reports of the United Nations
Environment Programme (“UNEP”), and the global report of the World Meteorological
Organization (“WMO”) on the state of the climate referred to in the Sharm el-Sheikh
Implementation Plan adopted at the most recent United Nations Climate Change Conference held
in November 2022.
Part IV: Development of international law
12. This part contains relevant materials from the completed and ongoing programme of work of the
International Law Commission (“ILC”), on the following topics:
(A) Responsibility of States for internationally wrongful acts
(B) Protection of the atmosphere
(C) Protection of persons in the event of disasters
(D) Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflict
(E) Transboundary harm from hazardous activities
(F) Sea-level rise in relation to international law
13. The material in this part includes reports of Special Rapporteurs, papers and reports of the ILC,
General Assembly resolutions regarding reports of the ILC and one volume of the
United Nations Legislative Series, where available and relevant to the question. Some of the
documents in this part are extracts from longer documents.
Part V: Protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment
14. Section A contains General Assembly resolution 77/165 of 14 December 2022 and all other
resolutions of the General Assembly relating to the protection of the global climate for present
and future generations of humankind, as referenced in General Assembly resolution 77/276.
15. Section B contains documents related to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (“Framework Convention”), the Convention on Biological Diversity (“CBD”) and the
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United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (“UNCCD”), (collectively, the “Rio
conventions”) and referenced in General Assembly resolution 77/276.
16. Subsection B (1) contains selected outcome documents from United Nations conferences on
questions of the environment prior to the entry into force of the Rio conventions. The
subsequent sub-sections contain documents relating to the respective Rio conventions.
17. Sub-section B (2) contains documents relating to the Framework Convention and the Paris
Agreement. This sub-section includes (i) select documents from the negotiation processes
leading up to the adoption of the Framework Convention and the Paris Agreement, (ii) select
decisions of the Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change
(“COP”), (iii) select decisions of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the
Parties to the Paris Agreement (“CMA”) and (iv) reports submitted to the COP and CMA by the
UNFCCC secretariat.
18. Not every decision of the COP and CMA has been included in the Dossier. The Dossier includes
those decisions of the COP or CMA that set out policies and substantive recommendations
pursuant to the Framework Convention or the Paris Agreement, with a focus on the most relevant
or most recent decisions.
19. The first global stocktake of the implementation of the Paris Agreement which began at the
CMA3 in November 2022 is scheduled to conclude at CMA6 at the end of 2023. As the global
stocktake process is still ongoing, documents submitted or prepared for this process so far have
not been included in the Dossier.
20. Sub-section B (3) contains decisions adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the CBD
related to climate change.
21. Sub-section B (4) contains documents relating to the UNCCD and interlinkages with climate
change, as well as the relationship between UNCCD and other relevant conventions.
22. Sub-section B (5) contains documents relating to the implementation of the Rio conventions. It
includes the most recent Note of the Secretary-General to the General Assembly, as well as
select General Assembly resolutions on the implementation of the Framework Convention, the
Paris Agreement, CBD and UNCCD and other related subject matters.
23. Section C contains documents relating to climate change and the environment from other bodies.
This section includes documents from (1) the General Assembly, (2) the United Nations
Environment Assembly, (3) the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and
Ecosystem Services and (4) outcomes related to the United Nations Forum on Forests.
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Part VI: Outcomes of United Nations conferences and follow-up processes and
related documents
24. Section A contains documents relating to the Millennium Summit and sustainable development
conferences. Sub-section A (1) contains documents related to the Millennium Summit and the
Millennium Development Goals. Sub-section A (2) contains documents related to the UN
conferences and processes on sustainable development, including the high-level political forum.
It comprises documents related to the post-2015 development agenda, including General
Assembly resolution 70/1 on “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development”, which is referred to in resolution 77/276. Sub-section A (3) contains documents
from UN conferences and follow-up processes relating to Small Island Developing States;
sub-section A (4) contains the outcome document of the Fifth UN Conference on the Least
Developed Countries and the follow-up to the Conference; sub-section A (5) contains the
outcome document of the second UN Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries and the
follow-up to the Conference; and sub-section A (6) contains documents related to disaster risk
reduction.
25. Section B contains documents relating to the outcomes and follow-up of other relevant
United Nations conferences and processes. This section includes selected outcome documents
from the conferences referenced in the General Assembly and Human Rights Council resolutions
referred to in General Assembly resolution 77/276.
26. In each case, the final outcome document or the General Assembly resolution endorsing and
annexing the outcome has been included. Documents issued in the lead-up to the adoption of the
final outcome document have not been included.
Part VII: Law of the sea
27. Section A contains relevant General Assembly resolutions on oceans and the law of the sea. The
General Assembly adopts an annual resolution on oceans and the law of the sea. Since the
adoption of resolution 61/222 on 20 December 2006, these have included language on the
adverse effects of climate change. The General Assembly also adopts an annual resolution on
sustainable fisheries. In this Section, only the most recent General Assembly resolutions on
these two subjects have been included.
28. Section B contains reports submitted to the General Assembly that provide information on the
impact of climate change on the oceans. It includes reports of the Secretary-General submitted
to facilitate the discussion during the United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process
on Oceans and the Law of the Sea on ocean acidification, effects of climate change on oceans
and sea-level rise. It also includes summaries of the first and second World Ocean Assessment
prepared by the Ad Hoc Working Group of the Whole on the Regular Process for Global
Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, including Socioeconomic
Aspects, submitted to the General Assembly.
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Part VIII: Human rights and climate change
29. This part contains United Nations documents on human rights and climate change more broadly.
It does not include documents relating to country-specific situations.
30. Section A contains relevant General Assembly resolutions, including the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, which was adopted by the General Assembly in 1948. It also includes
General Assembly resolution 76/300 on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable
environment, which is referred to in General Assembly resolution 77/276, as well as other
relevant General Assembly resolutions that relate to climate change and the right to
development, the right to food, the situation of women and girls and policies and programmes
involving youth.
31. Section B contains relevant Human Rights Council resolutions. Sub-section B (1) contains all
resolutions of the Human Rights Council on human rights and climate change, as referred to in
General Assembly 77/276. Sub-section B (2) contains other relevant Human Rights Council
resolutions, including those that link human rights with climate change, the environment and
sustainable development, including in disaster settings.
32. Section C contains reports submitted to the Human Rights Council by the Secretary-General and
the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The reports relate to the relationship
between climate change and human rights and to human rights protection gaps in the context of
adverse effects of climate change.
33. Section D contains documents of the United Nations human rights treaty bodies. This section
includes general comments, recommendations and statements that relate to climate change and
its impacts adopted by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee
on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Committee on the Rights of the Child,
the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant
Workers and Members of their Families and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities. It does not include decisions and opinions of these Committees concerning
individual complaints, petitions or communications addressed to them through the complaint
mechanisms.
34. Section E contains reports and statements prepared by the special procedures and mandate
holders of the Human Rights Council. In this section, the reports and statements relating to the
enjoyment of human rights in relation to climate change have been included. Select reports
prepared by the following mandate holders have been included:
(1) Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the
enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment;
(2) Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context
of climate change;
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(3) Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest
attainable standard of physical and mental health;
(4) Special Rapporteur on the right to food;
(5) Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights;
(6) Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights;
(7) Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate
standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context;
(8) Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerance;
(9) Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons;
(10) Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants;
(11) Special Rapporteur on the right to development;
(12) Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children;
(13) Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes, and
consequences;
(14) Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples; and
(15) Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity.
Introductory Note (documents received from the Secretariat of the United Nations)