Peoples Across Time
Future Generations and the African Climate Advisory Opinion
In 2025, a request was submitted to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights by a group of African civil society organisations for an advisory opinion on African States’ obligations in respect of the climate crisis. In his blog on Verfassungsblog, Simon Waswa argues that the open-ended notion of “peoples” in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights provides a doctrinal basis for recognising the interests of future generations within African human rights law.
Excerpt
The forthcoming advisory opinion represents a watershed moment. Although advisory opinions are formally non-binding, they can have far-reaching consequences for policy as well as politics in Member States, particularly when it comes to climate change.
The ACtHPR has previously addressed environmental degradation. Now it faces the systemic, long-term challenge of climate change—a crisis that transcends borders and generations, and one to which African States have contributed the least.
By interpreting “peoples” in Article 24 of the ACHPR as encompassing future generations, the Court could embed intergenerational justice within African human rights law. In doing so, it would not merely follow in the footsteps of the ICJ, the IACtHR, and the ECtHR—it would advance its jurisprudence further. This would ensure that African human rights law can chart a path toward development that does not mortgage the continent’s future.
