CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE RIGHT TO HEALTH IN THE INTER-AMERICAN SYSTEM OF HUMAN RIGHTS Andrea Garín, Marco Ossandón Chávez

Abstract

The environment we inhabit constitutes an important determinantof public health. One of the most pressing contemporary issuesof international relations is climate change, whose effects extendtowards the full enjoyment of the right to health. Over the pastthree decades, the international climate change regime hasmade several attempts to frame state’s legal obligationsconcerning climate-related risks. Normative discourses havelong conflated human rights, the environment, and public health,however, legal practice has only recently started pondering aboutclimate-sensitive risks to global health. In this sense, the Inter-American System of Human Rights has become an interestingforum to inquire the legal duties states have on public health dueto the negative impacts of climate change, specifically withregards to the Advisory Opinion 23/17 and Resolution 3/2021dictated within the Inter-American System of Human Rights.