Works On Human Rights, Fracking and Climate Change

A growing body of work has been emerging in recent years addressing the human rights and rights-of-nature implications of fracking and climate change; some examples are provided below.

Articles outlining the purpose and structure of this Tribunal session

• “An International Tribunal on the Human Rights Impacts of Fracking: Structure, Grounding and Purposes,” Tom Kerns, in New Frontiers in Environmental Constitutionalism, pp 48-61 United Nations Environment Program, May 2017
• “Why a Human Rights Tribunal?,” Tom Kerns, in Minding Nature, June 2017
• “Does Fracking Violate Human Rights?”  Thirteen invited papers by recognized experts in the “Questions for a Resilient Future” series at The Center for Humans and Nature, Spring 2017

Basic factual information about fracking

• Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking (Unconventional Gas and Oil Extraction), 6th ed, June 2019

Basic scientific information about climate change

• The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2013
• Forthcoming updates to the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2018-2019

Human Rights Impact Assessments (HRIAs) of fracking

• A Human Rights Assessment of Hydraulic Fracturing for Natural Gas in New York State, 2011
• A Human Rights Assessment of Hydraulic Fracturing and Other Unconventional Gas Development in the United Kingdom, 2014
• A Guide to Rights-based Advocacy: International Human Rights Law and Fracking, Sister Áine O’Connor, RSM, Mercy Global Action
• Human Rights and the Business of Fracking: Applying the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to Hydraulic Fracturing
• Extreme energy, ‘fracking’ and human rights: a new field for human rights impact assessments? Damien Short, et al, 2015

Human rights and climate change

• Report on Human Rights and Climate Change, UNEP, 12-10-15
• Understanding Human Rights and Climate Change, UNHCHR 2015
• Philippine Petition on Climate Change and Human Rights, May 2016
• “‘The Declaration on Human Rights and Climate Change’: A New Legal Tool for Global Policy Change,” Kirsten Davies, et al, Journal of Human Rights and the Environment (8.2) September 2017
• Declaration on Human Rights and Climate Change, Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and the Environment, May 2016;
  • poster-size version
  • letter-size version
  • tri-fold version
  • informational blurb about the DHRCC
  • DHRCC with rights of nature highlights

The human right to a safe, clean and sustainable environment

• Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment: The main human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, by John Knox, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, March 2018
• Report of the Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, 2013
• United Nations Toolkit on the Right to Health

Protecting rights of nature

• Fighting for Our Shared Future: Protecting Both Human Rights and Nature’s Rights – 2016 Update, Earth Law Center, December 2016

Rights of indigenous peoples

• Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Descendent Communities, and Natural Resources: Human Rights Protection in the Context of Extraction, Exploitation, and Development Activities, by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 2015