Human Rights and Climate Change: International Human Rights as an Instrument for Measures of Equalization?

Master's Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Law - Comparative Legal Systems, Comparative Law, grade: B+, University of Auckland (Law Faculty), course: Climate Change Law, language: English, abstract: This paper deals with the linkage of international human rights and climate change. It focuses on the approach to deduce legal claims in the form of compensations and concrete measures from international human rights in the course of impairments through climate change. This paper shall give a short overview on the issue climate change in general, including its causes, effects and the current political strategies. It furthermore provides a synopsis on how human rights are impaired by global warming and climate change effects. Unfortunately, this essay will come to the conclusion that the international human rights approach struggles with functioning as a solitary legal basis in that context and with stepping beyond the just moral implication. Human rights' legislative potential rather lies 'in the development of more encompassing and more inclusive legal and political strategies. Human rights may advisably be instrumentalized to strengthen political debates and be used as an incitement to set up enforceable and balanced agreements on reasonable measures of equalization and support.