Human Rights and the Paris Agreement: A Two-Way Street

Abstract

This article examines the evolving relationship between the Paris Agreement and human rights law, focusing on the interaction between these two regimes. It argues that human rights norms increasingly inform the interpretation, enfocerment and implementation of the climate regime, while the Paris Agreement functions as an interpretive, evidentiary and accountability framework within human rights law and practice. The article analyses how human rights considerations have been incorporated into the Paris Agreement through its preamble, operational provisions and subsequent treaty body practice, particularly in areas concerning participation, transparency, safeguards and just transition. It further examines how courts and other human rights oversight mechanisms have relied on the Paris Agreement’s temperature goals, governance structures, reporting mechanisms and mitigation pathways when assessing states’ obligations. Drawing on text analysis and institutional and judicial practice, the article assesses the interaction between the climate and human rights regimes. It argues that cross-fertilisation between the two regimes remains partial, selective and contested, reflecting continuing tensions concerning accountability, institutional competence, state sovereignty and the limits of adjudication. The article concludes that the relationship between the Paris Agreement and human rights law is best understood as an evolving process of reciprocal interpretive and institutional reinforcement.