The Climate Emergency and Human Rights: An Analysis of Advisory Opinion No. 032 of 2025 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

This paper analyzes Advisory Opinion No. 032 of 2025 issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the climate emergency and human rights, which was requested by Colombia and Chile. The aim is to examine how this decision broadens the understanding of state obligations regarding climate change by incorporating an ecocentric perspective that recognizes nature as a subject of rights. The methodology combines doctrinal analysis, a review of case law, and a critical hermeneutic of international and national sources, contrasting the Court’s position with precedents such as Urgenda v. Netherlands and Leghari v. Pakistan. The main findings show that the Court consolidates three advances: (i) the obligation of States to act with enhanced due diligence in the face of the climate crisis; (ii) the characterization of the duty not to cause environmental harm as a norm of ius cogens; and (iii) the autonomous recognition of the right to a healthy climate. All of this takes place within the framework of recognizing nature as a subject of rights. These conclusions redefine the relationship between human rights and the environment, establishing an ontological interdependence between humanity and nature. Consequently, it is argued that the Advisory Opinion drives the transition toward an ecological rule of law, in which climate justice, intergenerational equity, and the protection of non-human life become pillars of the new Latin American constitutionalism.