Bonavero Series Report Launch: International Human Rights Obligations in relation to Climate Change

This event will launch the latest Bonavero Series Report, International Human Rights Obligations in relation to Climate Change, by Martin Scheinin. The Report reproduces his expert report submitted to the International Court of Justice at the invitation of the Republic of Vanuatu, in its ongoing proceedings in relation to its Advisory Opinion Concerning the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change, expected later this year.The report examines the obligations of states in relation to climate change under international human rights law, and the consequences of states breaching their obligations to states, peoples, individuals and future generations.

Click here to read the report.

Professor Martin Scheinin worked at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights as British Academy Global Professor from August 2020 to February 2025, with a research project “Addressing the Digital Realm through the Grammar of Human Rights Law”. He now works as Guest Professor at Lund University (Sweden) and as part-time professor at the European University Institute. A separate strand of his work is related to human rights and climate change, particularly in the context of indigenous peoples and their cultures. He was counsel of the complainants in M.E.V. et al. v. Finland and J.T. et al. v. Finland, as well as author of an amicus brief in Daniel Billy et al. v. Australia . Bonavero Report 2/2025 reproduces his Expert Report submitted by Vanuatu in the IJC Advisory Opinion proceedings on states’ obligations in respect of climate change. 

Lara Ibrahim is a DPhil in Law candidate at the University of Oxford. Her main research interests are in Public International Law, looking specifically at extraterritorial human rights obligations of States in relation to environmental harm and climate change. In 2023/24, Lara was a Judicial Fellow at the International Court of Justice, clerking for the Vice-President of the Court, where she worked on a range of contentious and advisory cases. Lara has also completed the Bachelor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford, and graduated from the University of Sheffield with her LLB Law. 

Danilo Garrido is a Legal Counsel at Greenpeace International, working primarily on issues relating to international courts and tribunals, fossil fuels and biodiversity, as well as a DPhil in Law candidate at the University of Oxford. Prior to joining Greenpeace, he acted on behalf of victims of corporate environmental and human rights abuses in litigation before English and EU courts, and clerked for a Judge at the International Court of Justice. He also acted as Counsel for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in the ICJ Advisory Proceedings on Climate Change, and co-wrote the brief that Greenpeace International submitted to the ICJ on that same case. He holds an LL.M. in International Law from the University of Cambridge, and is admitted to practice in England & Wales, Brazil and Portugal.

Dr Ekaterina Aristova is a Research Fellow at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights (Faculty of Law, University of Oxford) and an Academic Fellow at the Honourable Society of Middle Temple in London. Her research interests are in the field of business and human rights, with a particular focus on strategic human rights and environmental litigation. Ekaterina examines how conventional private law doctrines evolve in response to global challenges and are used creatively in different jurisdictions to foster human rights and environmental accountability. Ekaterina is an author of ‘Tort Litigation against Transnational Corporations in the English Courts: The Challenge of Jurisdiction’ (OUP 2024), a revised manuscript of a PhD thesis completed at the University of Cambridge. Ekaterina is also a co-editor of ‘Civil Remedies and Human Rights in Flux’ (Hart Publishing 2022); ‘Civil Liability for Human Rights Violations: A Handbook for Practitioners’ (Bonavero Institute of Human Rights 2022) and ‘Cambridge Handbook on Business and Human Rights Litigation’ (forthcoming CUP 2026). In 2022, Ekaterina was awarded a prestigious Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship to complete a project on climate change litigation against corporations.