Bednarek Jakub, Commentary on the UN Human Rights Committee’s decision in the Torres Strait Islanders Case

On 22 September 2022 the Human Rights Committee adopted its views on the so called Torres Strait islanders case finding Australia in breach of its human rights obligations due to inadequate action on climate change adaptation . The Decision was widely celebrated among the climate change and human rights communities due to the fact that, to the best knowledge of the author, it was the first time that an international body found a State legally responsible for inaction in the face of the effects of rising global temperatures. Regardless of the fact that this decision is extremely important for the applicants and potentially for other individuals suffering from concrete and tangible effects of climate change, the legal significance of it might have been overstated in the comments following its release . The aim of this commentary is to unpack the decision by precisely describing the violations found by...