Welcome and Opening Remarks 

Welcome from Elisa Massimino, Visiting Professor and Executive Director, Human Rights Institute 

Panel One Keynote by Delaney Reynolds—The Right to a Future

From sinking islands of the South Pacific to small towns in the United States, young people around the world are demanding urgent action from governments and other powerful actors to address existential climate threats. Their activism is a call to conscience and a reminder that the struggle for climate justice is a struggle for human dignity, intergenerational equity, and the future of humanity.  

Panel One—Activists at the Front Lines: Defending Our Right to a Livable Future

This opening panel will feature frontline activists, human rights defenders, and youth and Indigenous climate leaders who are united by the common goal of defending the right to a livable future. Panelists will share firsthand accounts of how climate change is already impacting their homes, communities, and daily lives. This moderated discussion aims to ground global climate trends and scientific data in personal narratives and lived experiences. 

At the same time, the discussion emphasizes agency, resilience, and hope. Panelists will highlight how community engagement and collective action are generating meaningful change, even in the face of systemic challenges. This conversation will also feature Indigenous voices on the climate crisis and emphasize the importance of centering Indigenous perspectives in law and policy. Youth panelists will reflect on the growing centrality of young people within the environmental justice movement, what it means to come of age during this existential climate crisis, and how youth leadership is redefining advocacy and accountability.  

Intergenerational Equity and the Rights of Future Generations: A Conversation with Edith Brown Weiss

Panel Two—Building the Legal Architecture for Climate Justice

As the climate crisis intensifies, international law is increasingly being used to protect fundamental human rights. In recent years, the International Court of Justice, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea have issued major advisory opinions that are shaping how courts and governments around the world understand states’ responsibilities in the context of climate change. The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights will also issue an advisory opinion on states’ obligations to address the climate crisis. These decisions affirm that governments have legal duties under international law, recognize that climate-related harms can violate human rights, and emphasize the responsibility of high-emitting states and corporations to support a just transition in developing countries.  

In this panel, legal advocates and experts will break down what these opinions say, why they matter, and how this emerging legal framework can support efforts to advance climate justice through national courts and legislative action worldwide.   

Panel Three—Creative Climate Action in the United States

In the global discourse on anthropogenic climate change, no major country seriously disputes its existence except one—the United States. Under the guise of “energy security,” the executive branch has eviscerated environmental regulations and doubled down on fossil fuels. As the second highest emitter of greenhouse gasses globally—and on track to increase emissions—the United States is defying technological advances, economic sense, and international law to the peril of its and the world’s future. 

This closing panel will confront the obstacles to meaningful climate action in the United States and explore pathways forward. Panelists will consider these questions: What is the role of sub- and supra-national bodies? How can we safeguard the integrity of climate science, expert data, and journalism to challenge mis- and dis-information about climate change and energy policy? How do we combat corporate capture by the fossil fuel industry of our democratic and political processes? How can lawyers leverage evolving human rights norms and guarantees, and the international advisory opinions affirming them, in domestic rights-based litigation? And what role can civil society—particularly activists, organizers, students, and citizens—play to bring global concern for our shared future into our mainstream consciousness?