Past Events

Conference: Legal Advisory Opinions Shaping Climate Action and Human Rights [6 November 2025, Leiden University College]

On 6 November 2025, the Working Group on Human Rights & the Climate Crisis hosted its first annual conference, "Legal Advisory Opinions Shaping Climate Action and Human Rights", at Leiden University College. The conference was organised by Julie Fraser, Anneloes Kuiper, Otto Spijkers and Patricio Trincado Vera. Participants were invited to join a screening of "YUMI - The Whole World" the night before the conference, on 5 November 2025. The conference itself kicked off the next day with "A Word of Welcome" by Giles Scott-Smith, Dean of Leiden University College, and an open plenary chaired by Otto Spijkers. Margaretha Wewerinke‑Singh, Maria Antonia Tigre, and Fons Coomans spoke during the plenary. Participants then split into two parallel sessions. Parallel session 1, "Healthy Environment", included presentations by Corina Heri, Jed Odermatt, Tracey R Kanhanga, Luisa Netto and Otto Spijkers, and was chaired by Patricio Trincado Vera. Diana Odier-Contreras Garduno, Hazhar Jamali, Olga Szkodzinska, Estelle Valentine Irambona, and Mosopefoluwa Akinrinmade spoke in parallel session 2, "Climate Litigation: Techniques and Approaches", chaired by Anneloes Kuiper. After a lunch break, three further parallel sessions took place. Parallel session 3, "The Advisory Opinions in Context", was chaired by Samuel Ballin, and included presentations by Crisela Bernardino, Juan Auz, Christy Clark, Valerio Sinaj, Yasmine Rugarli, Zsófia Rába, and Letícia Rosar Mori. "Reparations and Future Generations" was the focus of parallel session 4, chaired by Marlies Hesselman, and welcoming Sally Thin, Maren Solmecke, Jie Ouyang, Prune Lladser, and Simon Waswa. Parallel session 5, chaired by Monique van Cauwenberghe, discussed "Cross-fertilization Between Opinions of Inter American Court on Human Rights and International Court of Justice". The speakers were Manrique Naranjo Chavarria, Patricio Trincado Vera, Diego Ernesto Sanchez Borjas, Nguyen The Duc Tam and Tran Thi Kim Nguyen. Finally, the closing plenary, chaired by Julie Fraser, included concluding remarks by Nico Schrijver, Anneloes Kuiper, Otto Spijkers, and Patricio Trincado Vera. More information is available here.

Panel Discussion: Access to Justice for the Climate Crisis [12 June 2025, Radboud University]

In the context of the NNHRR's Annual Conference, the Working Group organised a panel discussion presenting three distinct perspectives to climate justice litigation. The panel chaired by Dr. Julie Fraser (Utrecht University) was commenced by Irem Akin (Erasmus University Rotterdam) who outlined the corporate law pathways to reaching accountability for corporate harms, such as through influencing the decisions of the board of directors by the shareholders of the company. Clara Kammeringer (University of Amsterdam) continued the discussion by presenting research on the role of non-citizens in corporate climate lawsuits highlighting the challenges arising out of cross-border litigation. Finally, Dr. mr. Esra Akdogan (Wageningen University) presented her recently defended and published PhD dissertation on the sustainability chapters in the European Union’s free trade agreements. She highlighted accountability issues stemming from the soft nature of the obligations present in the agreements and their lack of enforcement. Specifically, because of an existing reporting mechanism to the European Commission, which is flawed by the Commission’s discretion to pursue the claims.

Symposium: Ending the Climate Crisis through Rights-Based Climate Litigation? Trends, Challenges and Opportunities [20 and 21 November 2024, Utrecht University]

The inaugural symposium of the NNHRR Human Rights and the Climate Crisis Working Group, hosted by the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) at Utrecht University, took place on 20 and 21 November 2024. The event featured expert presentations, in-depth analysis, and discussions on emerging trends in climate litigation, as well as research planning for 2025.

Resources and materials are available here.