For the first time, Barbados will host a session of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) beginning on Monday. The court’s 166th session, a four-day event, is to take place at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus in the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management.At a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press launch on Friday, Attorney General Dale Marshall explained that the hearings aim to discuss the impact of climate change on human rights.The historic hearings will focus specifically on the court providing an advisory opinion on the human rights impacts of climate change in the region. Several countries and civil society groups are expected to make submissions. “When climate change has a deleterious effect on the ability of our societies to survive, then clearly the fundamental human rights of individuals are impacted,” said Marshall. “Therefore, this is not being litigated in an economic court. It is being litigated and considered in a court that looks at how people live, work and survive, and therefore, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is very important for us.”
