Climate change adaptation through the human rights-based approach: Reflections on the African human rights system

  Michael Addaney
 BSc (Kwame Nkrumah) MSc (University for Development Studies) MPhil (Pretoria) PhD (Wuhan University)
 Senior Lecturer, Department of Land Management, University of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyani, Ghana
 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4351-1241
 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 Edition: AHRLJ Volume 26 No 1 2026
 Pages: 157 - 180
 Citation: M Addaney ‘Climate change adaptation through the human rights-based approach: Reflections on the African human rights system’ (2026) 26 African Human Rights Law Journal 157-180
 http://dx.doi.org/10.29053/1996-2096/2026/v26n1a6
 Download article in PDF

Summary

The African continent remains one of the regions most vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, due to its unique geography, low levels of economic development, high levels of poverty, colonial legacies, weak governance systems and social inequalities. The impacts of climate change are already being felt across the continent, and their intensity and frequency are projected to increase. The African Union and its institutions, including human rights bodies, must play a leading role in ensuring that member states adopt appropriate regional and national climate change legislation to guide climate action. Using a doctrinal legal method, this article examines the potential content of a human rights-based approach to climate change adaptation in Africa. It advances an original, structured normative framework, grounded in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, that identifies specific rights holders, duty bearers, and corresponding state obligations. While arguing for the immediate application of a human rights-based approach, the article calls on the AU to develop a climate-specific protocol anchored in human rights standards, given the novelty of the climate crisis and the legal innovations required to address adaptation and resilience effectively on the continent.

Key words: African Union; climate change; climate change adaptation; human rights law; human rights-based approach; international climate change law

1 Introduction

The 2015 Paris Agreement, adopted during the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), sets a target to limit global warming to 1,5°C.1 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) notes that meeting this goal will necessitate significant transformation across systems and sectors, including legal systems.2 International law has been identified as an important tool for driving the global transformation needed to address climate change.3 Article 2(1) of the Paris Agreement focuses on both climate mitigation, actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions and climate adaptation, actions to prepare for and address climate impacts.4 The African Union (AU), as a regional bloc, prioritises adaptation over mitigation due to the continent’s geographical vulnerability, level of development and collective greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.5 The concept of ‘adaptation’ refers to reactive adjustments that occur in response to changing conditions.6 Accordingly, adaptation describes ‘dynamics of change which, at least to some extent, seek to retain functional or structural features of the phenomenon that undergoes change’.7

While mitigation is largely top-down, adaptation is hyper-local, as climate change impacts vary significantly across countries and regions.8 These disparities are a major concern for many countries facing the disproportionate impacts of climate change. The most vulnerable and least resilient countries have limited capacity to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change. Given the already colossal accumulation of GHGs in the atmosphere, the impacts of climate change are inevitable regardless of the success of global efforts to curb emissions.9 Taking autonomous action on adaptation is practical, efficient and necessary. Given the varied impacts of climate change; it is particularly crucial at the national and local levels for addressing the specific requirements of affected communities, areas and ecosystems.10

The African continent remains one of the regions most vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change due to its unique geography, underdevelopment, high levels of poverty, colonial legacies, weak governance systems and social inequalities.11 The AU is lagging behind the European Union (EU) and the Organisation of American States (OAS), through its Inter-American human rights mechanisms, in adopting multilateral regional agreements to address climate change.12 Only 9 out of 55 African countries have adopted national legislation to address climate change within their jurisdictions.13 The impacts of climate change are already being felt across the continent, and their intensity and frequency are projected to increase.14 The AU, as a supranational institution, and its organs, such as the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), must play a pioneering role in ensuring that member states adopt appropriate regional and national climate change legislation to guide climate action.15

According to the 2022 State of the Climate in Africa report by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), significant flooding occurred across the Sahel during the monsoon season, including in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and South Sudan.16 The Horn of Africa, specifically Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, experienced the worst drought in four decades. The South Indian Ocean experienced a prolonged tropical cyclone season. At the beginning of 2022, a series of tropical cyclones and storms struck Southern Africa, causing floods and displacement.17 Many parts of East Africa experienced severe climate-related harm due to five consecutive failed rainy seasons, leading to higher food prices, food insecurity and reduced agricultural production.18 Excessive rainfall in West and Southern Africa destroyed farmland, compounding food insecurity in those regions.19 Sea levels along Africa’s coast are rising at a rate consistent with the global average of 3,4 millimetres per year.20 On this premise, and given the local and context-specific nature of climate change adaptation, a priority for the African continent and AU member states, there is a compelling basis for developing effective adaptation measures.

The relationship between climate change and human rights has been extensively debated.21 The link between the impacts of climate change and states’ responses to it is well established in the literature.22 In the United Nations (UN) system, this relationship has been formally recognised by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), which adopted Resolution 10/4 on human rights and climate change on 25 March 2009.23 In the AU, and on the African continent more broadly, both supranational institutions, including the working groups of AU organs, and scholars have recognised the conceptual and legal links between climate change impacts and the enjoyment of human and peoples’ rights, as well as how states’ responses to climate change, without adequate safeguards, can potentially violate recognised rights.24 HRC Resolution 10/4 asserts that human rights commitments can enhance and guide global and national climate policy.25

Similarly, HRC Resolution 32/34 affirms that human rights obligations, norms and principles can enhance and guide regional climate change policy making.26 In 2016, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission) adopted Resolution 342, encouraging AU member states to strengthen regional cooperation on climate change consistent with their human rights obligations, and mandating its Working Group on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and its Working Group on Extractive Industries, Environment and Human Rights Violations to conduct a ‘study on the impact of climate change on human rights in Africa’.27 Although the AU has yet to adopt climate-specific treaties at the regional level, human rights-based approaches, by applying human rights principles and standards, can operate in harmony with existing policies and initiatives on climate change adaptation in Africa.28

However, the application of a human rights-based approach to climate change adaptation in Africa remains novel.29 Jegede observed that while the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court), the African Commission and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (African Children’s Committee) have the potential to link climate change and human rights, this connection has not been adequately pursued in climate interventions on the continent.30

The present article advances a distinct contribution; it proposes an original, structured normative framework for a human rights-based approach to climate change adaptation in Africa (set out in Table 1), integrates analysis of the UNFCCC architecture with African human rights law in a unified doctrinal synthesis, and argues prescriptively for the development of a climate-specific AU protocol grounded in identified gaps within the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter). Through a comprehensive analysis of the relevant human rights instruments under the African human rights system, the article explores the potential content of a human rights-based approach to climate change adaptation in Africa. Using doctrinal legal methods, it reviews ongoing debates on climate change adaptation and human rights law, bringing together strands of literature from diverse fields. It begins by discussing the interconnections between climate change adaptation and human rights, drawing on scientific understandings of adaptation and the philosophical foundations of human rights (part 2). It then assesses states’ obligations under international climate change adaptation law from a human rights perspective (part 3). Part 4 explores the utility of human rights principles and norms in the context of climate change adaptation in Africa, laying out the case for a human rights-based approach to climate change adaptation law and policy. Part 5 offers concluding reflections on what climate change adaptation might mean for the field of human rights law in Africa.

2 Climate change adaptation and human rights: An overview

Despite ongoing efforts to reduce GHG emissions and enhance carbon sinks and reservoirs, climate change is already occurring, with the global average temperature estimated to have risen to 1,1° Celsius above pre-industrial levels.31 The current concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere will cause further warming, with temperature rises projected to exceed 2° Celsius above pre-industrial levels during the twenty-first century.32 These changes will alter the earth system in multiple ways as high temperatures affect the hydrological cycle, including drought and rainfall patterns; they drive sea-level rise, ocean acidification, and an increasing intensity and frequency of extreme weather events such as cyclones, storms, floods and wildfires.33 These physical impacts will have wide-ranging effects on human societies and socio-ecological systems, influencing agriculture and food production, water resources, public health, human security and human mobility.34 Conceptualised by the IPCC as the process of adjusting to ongoing and projected impacts of climate change,35 adaptation measures are increasingly urgent in developing countries and highly vulnerable regions as mitigation efforts remain inadequate. Although the UNFCCC was originally focused predominantly on mitigation, adaptation has been given equal priority since the adoption of the Bali Action Plan in 2007 and the Cancun Adaptation Framework in 2010. Adaptation measures at the national level entail a variety of strategies, including enhancing food and water security, public health interventions, and the protection of biodiversity and cultural heritage through infrastructure development, land-use planning and construction laws and social protection interventions.36

Two key scientific approaches to adaptation are widely canvassed: the community-based approach to adaptation (CBA) and the ecosystem-based approach to adaptation (EbA). The CBA focuses on empowering local communities to take ownership of adaptation efforts, building on their knowledge, skills and experiences.37 CBA prioritises community-led initiatives, social cohesion and inclusive decision making.38 The EbA focuses on maintaining and restoring ecosystem services to enhance adaptive capacity and resilience.39 EbA prioritises the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of natural resources, recognising their role in regulating the climate, providing ecosystem services and supporting human well-being.40 Despite their complementarity, the two approaches differ in their primary focus, methods and outcomes; community-based approaches focus predominantly on social and cultural dimensions.41 In contrast, ecosystem-based approaches focus principally on ecological and environmental aspects.42

Given the social dimensions of climate change and the adverse consequences for the enjoyment of human rights, a third approach, which is the human rights-based approach (HRBA), is being strongly advocated by human rights scholars, practitioners and activists.43 The HRBA to climate change is distinct from both CBA and EbA, as it prioritises the protection and promotion of human rights, particularly those of vulnerable populations.44 The HRBA emphasises the obligations of states and other duty bearers to respect, protect and fulfil human rights, including the rights to life, health, water, food and an adequate standard of living, as well as substantive and procedural environmental rights such as the rights to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment; participation in environmental decision making; access to environmental information; and access to remedy in environmental matters.45 Environmental human rights are increasingly recognised in international and national human rights law, whereas environmental rights, until recently, were recognised primarily in environmental laws and policies.46 At its core, the HRBA underscores that human rights principles and standards should guide climate policies and actions, recognising the significant impacts of climate change on human rights.

The HRBA was jointly conceptualised by various UN bodies in 2003 to rationalise engagement with human rights across UN agencies in international development.47 These bodies delineated six guiding principles: (1) universality and inalienability; (2) indivisibility; (3) inter-dependence and inter-relatedness of human rights;
(4) equality and non-discrimination; (5) participation and inclusion; and (6) accountability and the rule of law.48 The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) clarified that the HRBA provides ‘a conceptual framework for the process of human development that is normatively based on international human rights standards and operationally directed to promoting and protecting human rights’.49 Broberg and Sano further explained that the HRBA produces ‘a methodological framework for the realisation of human rights’ through ‘linking the normative basis to its concrete implementation’, while acknowledging that its application may differ significantly in practice depending on contextual factors.50 The HRBA has been strongly advocated for climate action to ‘ensure that laws, policies, programmes, and projects adopted to mitigate or adapt to climate change respect, protect, and fulfil human rights’.51 Rajamani characterises the HRBA as a strategic approach that reframes the climate crisis to provide countries with ‘a compass for policy orientation’ and to promote more robust climate action. The HRBA goes beyond mainstreaming human rights into climate policy; its particular value in the adaptation context lies in sustaining attention to the human rights impacts of climate change.52 More broadly, the HRBA rests on the value of systemic integration in international law, which provides an important framework for interpreting the human rights-related provisions of the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement within the wider context of human rights law.

Human rights and climate change frameworks have traditionally faced challenges in evolving together, due to differing perspectives on responsibilities and obligations; merging the two frameworks is unlikely to resolve these tensions entirely.53 Despite these obstacles, human rights-based approaches to climate change remain valuable. The primary premise of human rights approaches to climate change is that human rights law can provide a pathway to determine who is responsible and liable for the climate crisis and who will be most affected by it.54 Accordingly, various UN bodies, international tribunals,55 scholars and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)56 endorse a human rights-centric approach to addressing climate change. They argue that states are required, in good faith, to respect, protect and uphold internationally recognised rights under international human rights law.57 Human rights derive their strength in part from being grounded in widely accepted norms of natural law, thereby enhancing their political and normative influence.58 The HRBA, therefore, draws on concepts of fairness and the protection of minority and vulnerable populations, extending beyond the literal scope of current legal instruments.59 While the use of human rights language does not guarantee the establishment of formal legal regulations, it raises awareness of the struggles of marginalised groups who bear the least responsibility for climate change, and thereby strengthens the case for prioritising climate change within the broader international environmental agenda.60

Linking human rights and climate change adaptation theoretically offers an opportunity for marginalised actors to participate in climate change discussions. As Limon argues, the focus on the challenges facing small island states and other at-risk populations in IPCC Assessment Reports, UN declarations and resolutions illustrates this dynamic.61 Including the perspectives of previously marginalised communities in climate change discussions promotes greater global collaboration and deepens understanding of the issue.62 Applying human rights perspectives to climate change adaptation can also contribute to the development of a consistent legal framework that protects human rights.63 Affected communities retain the option to pursue accountability claims domestically for human rights violations related to climate change, using the human rights framework to demand that states fulfil their obligations in the face of adverse climate consequences.64

The human rights-based approach to climate change adaptation constitutes a valuable complement to the existing framework of climate laws. Presenting climate change from a humanistic perspective, rather than a purely scientific one, could help generate the public and political support needed for an equitable response to the crisis.65 Unlike common obligations in international climate law, human rights obligations are independent and do not depend on other countries’ compliance. While international climate law faces well-documented enforcement and compliance challenges, numerous human rights courts, tribunals, treaty-monitoring bodies, and special procedure mechanisms can effectively address climate change-related human rights claims.66 Adopting an HRBA for climate change adaptation could therefore enhance and accelerate the development of a robust adaptation framework while ensuring that states’ responses align with their human rights obligations.

3 Climate change adaptation and states’ obligations: A human rights-based assessment

States have particular duties under international law that apply to adapting to climate change within their territories. In a broader sense, states are expected to establish favourable conditions for human development,67 effectively prevent and manage natural disasters68 and promote environmental sustainability.69 Ongoing and projected climate change impacts make it increasingly difficult for states to perform these essential functions.70 Adaptation to climate change requires attention to three interrelated components: vulnerability, exposure and hazard. Exposure indicates the existence of human populations and assets in areas where climate events may occur. Hazard represents the probability that a physical event will occur at a given location.71 Vulnerability is the likelihood that an event will cause significant harm to exposed populations and properties.72 Addressing exposure and vulnerability to climatic hazards to prevent or minimise harm is the ultimate objective of climate change adaptation.73 Reducing exposure may involve infrastructure development, land use planning, physical development controls preventing construction in high-risk areas and planned relocation. Reducing vulnerability requires context-specific strategies such as constructing levees to protect against flooding and sea level rise, harvesting and storing water, and developing irrigation facilities to address drought and water scarcity.

The UNFCCC, the Paris Agreement and multiple Conference of the Parties (COP) decisions contain substantive obligations related to climate change adaptation. Under article 4(1)(b) of the UNFCCC, all state parties are required, irrespective of their level of development, to formulate, implement, publish and regularly update national and, where appropriate, regional programmes containing measures to facilitate adequate adaptation to climate change.74 All parties must further ‘cooperate in preparing for adaptation to the impacts of climate change’ and develop appropriate integrated plans for coastal zone management, water resources and agriculture, including for areas affected by drought, desertification and flooding.75 All parties are also required, to the extent feasible, to take climate change considerations into account in their relevant social, economic and environmental policies and actions.76 To support developing and least developed countries, parties must give full consideration to funding, insurance and technology transfer needs arising from the adverse effects of climate change,77 and take full account of the specific needs and special situations of the least developed countries.78

Building upon the Bali Action Plan’s call for ‘enhanced action on adaptation’, the Cancún Agreements affirmed that adaptation action

should follow a country-driven, gender-sensitive, participatory and fully transparent approach, taking into consideration vulnerable groups, communities and ecosystems, and should be based on and guided by the best available science and, as appropriate, traditional and indigenous knowledge, with a view to integrating adaptation into relevant social, economic and environmental policies and actions.79

The Paris Agreement built on these foundations by dedicating article 7 to climate change adaptation, establishing the global goal of enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change.80 State parties are committed, as a matter of principle, to acknowledging that adaptation action should follow a country-driven, gender-responsive, participatory and fully transparent approach, taking into consideration vulnerable groups, communities and ecosystems.81 It should be noted, however, that the adaptation provisions in the Paris Agreement are largely recommendations or aspirational commitments rather than hard legal obligations.82 More broadly, states’ obligations to promote and protect the rights and welfare of the people within their territories, including in the context of climate change, are widely recognised in international human rights law.

The UN Charter sets out human rights standards covering civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.83 Human rights principles established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Universal Declaration) and reinforced in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and various international law treaties are recognised as customary norms applicable across areas of international law.84 Understanding how international human rights treaties can be interpreted to address climate change-related claims, therefore, is crucial, as these instruments do not directly address climate change and substantial interpretation is required.85 Human rights bodies, including courts, tribunals and treaty-monitoring mechanisms, have demonstrated the relevance of these general rules in the human rights context.86 The Inter-American Court of Human Rights articulated the adaptive interpretive approach in one of its advisory opinions:87

Modern human rights treaties, in general, are not multilateral treaties of the traditional type concluded to effect the reciprocal exchange of rights for the mutual benefit of the contracting states. Their object and purpose are the protection of basic rights of individual human beings, irrespective of their nationality, both against the state of their nationality and all other contracting states. In concluding these human rights treaties, the states can be deemed to submit themselves to a legal order within which they, for the common good, assume various obligations.

This interpretive approach allows human rights provisions to remain adaptable to changing international circumstances, ensuring the continued relevance of human rights law.88

The UNFCCC, its associated agreements, and COP decisions set out specific obligations that states must meet regarding adaptation, information sharing, education, finance and technology transfer,89 as well as overarching principles to guide climate adaptation action.90 The UNFCCC’s objective in article 2 is to achieve stabilisation of GHG concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system, within a timeframe sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally and economic development to proceed sustainably.91

Comparisons between international human rights law and climate adaptation action are increasingly common in international discussions. The UNFCCC’s acknowledgment of the link between climate change and human rights is evidenced by COP decisions affirming that states must uphold human rights in all climate change actions.92 The Preamble to the Paris Agreement expressly recognises that state parties should, when taking action to address climate change,

respect, promote, and consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, the right of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the right to development.93

For the first time in a multilateral climate agreement, the Paris Agreement thus explicitly recognises states’ responsibilities towards human rights. The effectiveness of international human rights law in enhancing climate change adaptation can accordingly be strengthened by considering states’ compliance with human rights obligations when assessing their obligations under the UNFCCC architecture.

At COP 24 in December 2018, the Paris Rulebook was adopted through a series of decisions on the operationalisation of the Paris Agreement.94 Efforts to incorporate human rights language into the Rulebook, including in guidelines on adaptation and mitigation, the transparency framework and the global stocktake, did not succeed.95 Human rights bodies and mandate holders of the HRC Special Procedures called on parties to incorporate human rights into the Rulebook.96 While these demands went unmet in the Rulebook, the guidelines for preparing Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and adaptation communications do include indirect references to human rights.97 Civil society and human rights activists expressed significant frustration at these limited and cautious references.98 COP decisions, however, have referred to human rights in other contexts, including those relating to the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform.99 Some parties have also endorsed the UNFCCC Secretariat’s creation of a human rights focal point.100

A watershed development in the international legal architecture on climate change came on 23 July 2025, when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered its Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change, requested by the UN General Assembly pursuant to Resolution 77/276. The ICJ confirmed, with considerable analytical force, that states bear legally binding obligations under customary international law and applicable treaty law to take effective measures to prevent, reduce and address the harmful effects of climate change, including obligations drawn from international human rights law.101 The Court affirmed that the right to life, the right to health and the right to a healthy environment impose substantive duties on states to adopt meaningful adaptation measures proportionate to foreseeable climate harms within their territories and, under certain conditions of effective control, beyond.102 For African states, the significance of this Opinion is pronounced; the ICJ’s affirmation that human rights obligations operate in systemic integration with the UNFCCC architecture, rather than in subordination to it, lends direct authoritative support to the argument advanced in this article that a human rights-based approach to climate change adaptation is not merely persuasive or aspirational, but grounded in binding international law. The Court’s reasoning drew on the principle of systemic integration under article 31(3)(c) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT), validating the interpretive approach taken by human rights scholars and bodies who have sought to read the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement in light of extant human rights obligations. African Commission Resolutions 153, 271, 342 and 417, read against the backdrop of the ICJ Opinion, now carry enhanced normative force as operational expressions of obligations that the Court has confirmed are legally cognisable at the global level.

4 Climate change and human rights under the African human rights system: Towards a human rights-compliant adaptation framework

The threshold for a safer climate has already been exceeded, such that mitigation efforts alone cannot adequately address the problems caused by climate change.103 It is therefore necessary to implement measures to safeguard populations, cultures, economic activities, infrastructure and ecosystems against the adverse impacts of climate change. State parties to the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement are mandated by article 4(1)(b) of the UNFCCC to develop and implement regional plans for addressing climate change through mitigation and adaptation measures.104 Article 11(4) of the Paris Agreement reinforces this obligation by emphasising the effectiveness of regional measures in supporting developing countries to implement the agreement.105 Given that climate change is regarded as the most significant challenge to sustainable development in Africa, the AU is actively seeking sustainable, continent-wide solutions to its adverse impacts.106 Although the AU has yet to adopt specific climate change laws to complement the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, regional human rights law can serve as a practical tool to inform and complement the emerging regional framework on climate change adaptation, thereby improving its effectiveness. This is founded on the recognition of pertinent human rights standards in the African Charter; the rights to a general satisfactory environment favourable to development, health, life, an adequate standard of living, culture and asylum, as well as the right not to be arbitrarily displaced.107 The rights to life, adequate housing, food, and the highest attainable standard of health are all threatened by climate change.108 States’ responses to the adverse effects of climate change can also potentially violate human rights,109 particularly where adaptation measures affect access to and use of natural resources such as land, water and forests, thereby implicating rights to culture, property, health, life, clean water and sanitation, and indigenous peoples’ self-determination.110

Climate change adaptation through a human rights-based approach is essential to addressing discriminatory practices and power imbalances that undermine the effectiveness of adaptation measures and violate human rights.111 It is therefore necessary to identify key human rights standards and the corresponding obligations of states in the adaptation context, and to propose ways to empower individuals to hold duty bearers to account. When affected communities, groups and individuals impacted by climate change or by adaptation responses are included in decision making without bias, adaptation outcomes improve.112 Poorly designed or executed adaptation strategies can infringe upon or weaken human rights, particularly where local communities are not adequately involved or where proper procedures and legal access are not maintained in the event of required relocation.113 Scholars typically identify two methods by which human rights law can meet the adaptation needs of vulnerable populations in developing states. One is by utilising procedural rights, such as the right to receive climate information, including early warnings; the right to participate in adaptation decision making; and the right of access to remedies for climate adaptation-related harms.114 The second involves applying existing substantive human rights norms to achieve effective climate adaptation outcomes.115 As discussed above, climate change adversely affects rights to life, health, food, water, sanitation, an adequate standard of living and culture.116

The content of a human rights-based approach to climate change adaptation requires identifying rights holders and duty bearers. The international legal framework on climate change adaptation has conventionally been confined to a few specialised areas of international law, but these traditional boundaries are increasingly challenged as legal fields touching on agriculture and food production, water and energy, infrastructure and cultural heritage intersect. A human rights-based approach to climate change adaptation plays an important role in ensuring effective, fairer and more inclusive adaptation action by bringing these fields together. Even negatively framed human rights create responsibilities to take actions that are intentional, specific, and aimed directly at fulfilling human rights obligations.117 The African human rights framework includes a relevant reference to climate change adaptation by guaranteeing that all individuals have the right to a general satisfactory environment conducive to their development.118 This right underscores the interconnectedness between environmental protection, climate change adaptation and sustainable development.119 The right to a general satisfactory environment is a key dimension of human rights law’s relevance to climate change adaptation, even though it is not consistently operationalised in practice.120

There is a strong legal foundation for a human rights-based approach to climate change adaptation by AU member states. The catalogue of relevant rights includes both civil and political rights, such as the right to life and self-determination, and economic, social and cultural rights, such as the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to health. This breadth underscores the inherent interdependence and indivisibility of human rights. Based on the analysis above, this article proposes the following structured framework for the content of a human rights-based approach to climate change adaptation in Africa.

Table 1: Propositions for a human rights-based approach to climate change adaptation

As Table 1 demonstrates, AU human rights law provides a foundation for addressing climate change adaptation by complementing international climate change law while informing the further development of climate-specific instruments to guide adaptation action in Africa. A human rights-based approach to climate change adaptation must recognise the core human rights principles of accountability, equality and non-discrimination, inclusion and participation, indivisibility, interdependence and inter-relatedness, and universality and inalienability. The rights of certain groups in vulnerable situations may be affected more severely by climate change, and states have enhanced obligations under the principles of equality and non-discrimination. These groups include indigenous peoples, children, people living in extreme poverty, minority groups, persons with disabilities, and forest-ocean-dependent communities who rely on marine environments, forested areas and river basins.121 The framework must further recognise and mainstream substantive human rights norms in the African Charter and related instruments. Regional human rights laws alone, however, are insufficient to govern climate change adaptation effectively.122 The African Charter does not explicitly address climate change, but does recognise rights directly relevant to adaptation, including the right to life (article 4), the right to health (article 16), the right to a general satisfactory environment (article 24), and the right to development (article 22). These rights provide a basis for holding governments accountable for their human rights responsibilities in the adaptation context, particularly regarding displacement and mobility, health effects and livelihood disruption.123

There are, however, limitations to relying solely on the AU’s human rights laws to address climate change. The African Charter does not provide specific norms on climate change adaptation, making it difficult for governments, policy makers and practitioners to apply the law to complex climate emergencies.124 The African Charter and related instruments primarily focus on human rights and may not adequately address the technical dimensions of climate change adaptation.125 A major challenge remains enforcement, as the African human rights system struggles to ensure compliance with its decisions, limiting the effectiveness of adjudicating climate change adaptation cases.126 Addressing these limitations requires developing additional laws, policies and guidelines specifically addressing climate change adaptation in Africa – including climate-specific instruments at the continental and national levels covering adaptation, resilience and loss and damage. These interventions should be complemented by strengthening the capacity of African courts and human rights bodies to adjudicate climate change cases, through training and resources for judges, lawyers and other stakeholders.

A significant institutional development substantiates the prescriptive arguments advanced in this part. On 2 May 2025, the Pan-African Lawyers Union (PALU) submitted a formal request to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court) for an Advisory Opinion on the human rights obligations of African states in the context of the climate crisis.127 This request, submitted pursuant to article 4 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court Protocol), invites the Court to clarify the substantive content of African states’ duty to prevent climate harms, the procedural obligations attached to climate-related decision making, and the remedial implications of climate inaction under the African Charter. Should the African Court deliver an advisory opinion, it would constitute the first authoritative regional pronouncement on climate obligations under the African Charter, filling the normative gap that currently constrains the effectiveness of the African human rights system in climate governance. The PALU request explicitly invokes the rights to life, health, food, water and a satisfactory environment under articles 4, 16, 22, and 24 of the African Charter – the same rights identified in Table 1 as constitutive of a human rights-based approach to climate change adaptation in Africa. The convergence between the scholarly framework proposed in this article and the juridical strategy pursued through the PALU request demonstrates both the practical urgency and the legal coherence of integrating human rights norms into Africa’s emerging climate adaptation framework.

5 Conclusion

This article has examined the importance of adopting a human rights-based approach when addressing climate change adaptation in Africa, focusing on both the opportunities and the obstacles involved. Climate change constitutes a global crisis distinct from routine public emergencies. It reveals the limitations of existing international law and highlights the importance of examining how human rights norms can be deployed to promote effective adaptation. The foregoing analysis has shown that while climate change adaptation is gaining greater attention, the development of climate law in Africa remains at an early stage. Current regional laws must be assessed to determine whether they can support adaptation efforts, a task that spans almost every sector of society and governance.

These prescriptive arguments are substantially reinforced by two landmark legal developments in 2025. First, the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion of 23 July 2025 on the Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change conclusively establishes, as a matter of general international law, that states bear human rights-based obligations to adapt to climate change, lending binding authoritative weight to the interpretive arguments advanced throughout this article. Second, the request submitted by PALU on 2 May 2025 for an Advisory Opinion from the African Court on the climate obligations of African states creates a direct institutional pathway for the human rights-compliant adaptation framework proposed in this article to acquire regional legal authority. Together, these developments signal a maturation of the legal field, demonstrating that the relationship between human rights and climate adaptation no longer is merely a scholarly aspiration, but a live question before the highest judicial bodies in international and regional law. For African states, the practical implication is that the window for voluntary, aspirational engagement with human rights-based adaptation is narrowing. As advisory opinions and judicial decisions progressively crystallise binding obligations, African states face increasing legal accountability for the adequacy of their adaptation responses. The contribution of this article lies precisely in anticipating this trajectory and providing, through the framework in Table 1 and the analysis of the African Charter’s substantive provisions, a normatively coherent and institutionally workable blueprint for compliance.

The AU must therefore progressively revise its current treaties, resolutions and declarations, while developing new instruments that align with human rights and address the unique challenges of climate change adaptation in Africa. Concretely, this requires the development of a Draft AU Protocol to the African Charter on Climate Change (Mitigation, Adaptation, and Loss and Damage), using the normative framework in Table 1 as its substantive basis; the establishment of an African Commission Special Rapporteur on Climate Change and Human Rights, building on Resolutions 153, 271, 342 and 417; and the integration of the human rights-based framework in Table 1 into the Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans of AU member states as a compliance benchmark. Regional institutions will need to lead the coordination of adaptation efforts relating to transboundary river basins, coastal areas and international migration. At all levels, these interventions must align with human rights norms and principles under international and African human rights law, and human rights principles and norms must be fully integrated into the law-making process.