The Norwegian Helsinki Committee, a member of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), which will be present at the conference, calls on Parties to fulfil their obligations under the 2015 Paris Agreement and to make human rights a core issue in all decisions – from the transition away from fossil fuels to electrification and finance targets.
Shifting away from fossil fuels, increasing electrification, and scaling up finance from high-income to low-income countries are not themes traditionally linked to human rights. However, as case law from international and national courts indicates, climate change caused by global warming has serious implications for human rights.
The International Court of Justice has concluded that states have obligations under international law to prevent significant climate harm, regulate activities that contribute to climate change, and cooperate to protect present and future generations. COP31 is a test of whether governments will act on those obligations.
To improve climate and environmental policies, states must protect and respect the work of environmental human rights defenders. In December 2025, indigenous climate defender Daria Egereva was detained by Russian authorities and charged with terrorism shortly after returning from COP30. She and her colleague, Natalia Leongardt, have been in pre-trial detention since then and face up to 20 years in prison.
Indigenous people, such as Daria and Natalia, are often disproportionately affected by both climate change and green policies that are insufficiently grounded in human rights. Russian authorities have designated the Aborigen Forum, an Indigenous rights network, as extremist and terrorist. Human rights groups dispute the basis for these designations and state that the organisation did not engage in terrorism.
– At COP31, governments must make clear that defending the climate is the right of everyone. No one should be criminalised for advocating that states belatedly take the ongoing climate crisis seriously or for supporting policies that address climate issues, said Gunnar M. Ekeløve-Slydal, Deputy Secretary-General.