Human Rights in the Face of the Climate Crisis

Symposium: „Human rights in the face of the climate crisis“

Castle Herrenhausen, Hanover, 6 – 8. November 2023

As part of the human rights week organised and funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, the FAU Research Centre for Human Rights at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg hosted a 2½-day symposium on “Human Rights in the Face of the Climate Crisis” with almost 50 renowned experts from civil society and various academic disciplines.

The starting point of the symposium was the assumption that climate change – as one of the great transformations of our time – is exposing a growing number of the world’s population to new living conditions and risks that are hardly compatible with a life in dignity. The symposium therefore addressed the consequences of the climate crisis for the human rights of current and future generations and further inquired what challenges they pose for the understanding, design and protection of human rights. From a human rights perspective, what can be demanded from whom in the face of the climate crisis; and who is bound by human rights and how – given the complexity of the climate crisis? What legal and political problems arise when demanding a human rights-based climate policy and how can these be overcome?

You can download the full conference report by Prof. Dr. Michael Krennerich here (Download report).