Climate Change and Mental Health: A Human Rights Perspective

TL;DR

This paper explores how climate change affects mental health through a human rights lens, analyzing legal cases where mental health impacts were raised.

Contribution

The paper introduces a human rights framework for addressing climate change's mental health impacts through legal case analysis.

Findings

Four out of five analyzed cases were dismissed due to procedural or evidentiary issues.

International human rights bodies are beginning to recognize mental health impacts of climate change.

The human rights approach to climate-related mental health is emerging but faces significant challenges.

Abstract

Climate change-related environmental harms have been observed to negatively affect mental health. While policymakers and courts around the world widely recognise the impacts of climate change on physical heath as potentially endangering human rights, the implications of climate change for mental health have received significantly less attention. This paper analyzed five cases that challenged national response to climate change and the resulting impacts on mental health before four different international human rights protection bodies. Four out of these five cases were dismissed either because the petitioners did not seek prior action before the national authorities, or because their claims were deemed unsubstantiated. Despite these outcomes, the protection bodies’ treatment of these petitions as well as various other ongoing developments show that the human rights approach to climate change and mental health is gradually emerging at the international and domestic levels, but it is still in its early days and there are various challenges to it.