MEDIA RELEASE: Australians take government to UN Human Rights Committee over failure to act on climate

Climate Media Centre

Tuesday 23 June 2026

Ten Australians have lodged a landmark case with the United Nations Human Rights Committee, arguing the Australian Government is violating their human rights by continuing to support fossil fuel production for export.

The claimants represent different experiences and perspectives and come from all around Australia: First Nations leaders, a firefighter, young people, and people living with disability. But they have all had their lives shaken by climate damage.

They say Australia’s continued approval and subsidisation of new coal and gas projects breaches its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, specifically the rights to life, family and home, and the rights of First Nations peoples to practice culture.

It follows the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ruling that fossil fuel-exporting nations bear legal responsibility for the climate harm their exports cause.

The world’s highest court ruled unanimously that states have binding obligations under international law to prevent significant harm to the climate system, and that fossil fuel production, export licensing and subsidies can constitute internationally wrongful acts.

In May 2026, 141 countries at the United Nations General Assembly voted to endorse that ruling. Australia has welcomed the ICJ’s opinion while continuing to approve new fossil fuel projects.

Australia is the world’s second-largest coal exporter and third-largest exporter of Liquified Natural Gas.

A press conference by the claimants will be held in Canberra, at Mural Hall in Australian Parliament House, at 12:30pm on Tuesday 23 June 2026.

The below experts are available for interview — contact Sean Kennedy, Climate Media Centre: 0447 121 378 [email protected]

Professor Ian Lowe AO, Emeritus Professor of Science, Technology and Society, Griffith University.

“Australia has had the scientific evidence on climate change for more than thirty years. We have had the international legal obligations for almost as long. What we have lacked is a government willing to align its approval of new fossil fuel projects with either. This complaint asks the United Nations to hold Australia to commitments it has already made.”

Dr Julia Dehm, Senior Lecturer and ARC DECRA Fellow, School of Law, La Trobe University.

“The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights obliges Australia to protect the right to life from foreseeable threats, and climate change is exactly that. What makes this claim significant is that it connects Australia’s specific conduct, approving and subsidising fossil fuel exports, to measurable harm to people living here now. The Human Rights Committee is the right body to scrutinise that connection. Australia cannot credibly claim to support international human rights law while systematically undermining the climate conditions those rights depend on.”

Dr Wesley Morgan, Climate Council Fellow; Research Associate, Institute for Climate Risk and Response, Australian Climate Accountability Project, Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW.

Australia’s Pacific neighbours have been saying for decades that our coal and gas exports are putting their lives and homelands at risk. The ICJ has now confirmed what they always knew, that international law is on their side. This complaint takes that legal reality and applies it directly to the Australian Government’s conduct. A managed shift away from fossil fuels is inevitable. The question is whether Australia gets ahead of that, or keeps trying to avoid its own legal obligations.”

Prof David Karoly, Climate Council Councillor.

"Australia is the world’s third-largest fossil fuel exporter. The pollution generated by our coal and gas exports drives global warming and worsens extreme weather events. This comes back to harm Australian communities, who are facing more intense and frequent fires, floods and extreme heat driven by this pollution.

"The world’s highest court has ruled that governments bear legal responsibility for the climate harm their exports cause, and in bringing this case forward, these 10 Australians are asking the Australian government to face up to that responsibility and act on it."

—ENDS—

BACKGROUND

The claim is lodged under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which allows individuals to bring claims against states that have ratified the protocol. Australia ratified the Optional Protocol in 1991.
The ICJ Advisory Opinion on climate change was handed down on 23 July 2025, finding unanimously that states have binding obligations to prevent significant harm to the climate system and that fossil fuel production, export licensing and subsidies can constitute internationally wrongful acts.
On 20 May 2026, the UN General Assembly voted 141–8 to endorse the ICJ opinion, with 28 abstentions. Australia voted in favour.
Australia is the world’s second-largest coal exporter and third-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), according to the International Energy Agency and the Energy Institute (2024). Its exported emissions were more than twice its total domestic emissions in 2022, and its exported emissions almost doubled between 2010 and 2022, according to the Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW (2024).
In September 2025, the Australian Human Rights Institute at UNSW published State of Denial, finding the Australian Government is in breach of its obligations to protect human rights by failing to limit fossil fuel production for export.
The UN Human Rights Committee previously found, in Teitiota v New Zealand (2020), that climate change poses a real and foreseeable threat to the right to life, establishing a precedent for individual climate complaints under the ICCPR.
The claim is supported by the Human Rights Law Centre, Environmental Justice Australia and Earthjustice.

Contact details:

Sean Kennedy, Senior Media Advisor, Climate Media Centre — 0447 121 378 — [email protected]