The African Union has declared 2025 the “Year of Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations,” presenting an opportunity to confront centuries of historical and ecological injustice. Now, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights has a chance to turn this declaration into action by considering an advisory opinion on states’ human rights obligations in the context of climate change. The Court could issue a landmark ruling that explicitly links colonialism to climate harms across the continent, advancing Africa’s fight for reparative justice.
Amnesty International recently documented one striking example of colonial harm. Between 1924 and 1929, during the French colonial era in Madagascar, authorities deliberately released genetically manipulated cochineal parasites across roughly 40,000 hectares of drought-resilient vegetation in the Androy region. This vegetation, which had sustained the Antandroy people for generations, was destroyed at a rate of about 100 kilometers each year, stripping communities of a vital natural defense against recurring droughts. More than a century later, these communities remain exposed to hunger, displacement, and death during climatic crises—exacerbated by human-induced climate change driven largely by historically high-emitting countries such as France.
The scientific connection between colonialism and climate vulnerability is well-established. The IPCC highlighted how colonial practices left many communities in former colonies disproportionately exposed to climate impacts, from droughts to rising sea levels. Yet, turning science into effective climate action requires political will, particularly from states with historic responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions. When such action falters, affected countries have sought clarity and accountability through international legal avenues, including the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
In March 2023, Vanuatu, a former colony of France and the United Kingdom, rallied the UN General Assembly to request an ICJ advisory opinion on states’ legal obligations regarding climate change. While the ICJ recognized that climate obligations flow from customary international law, it notably avoided acknowledging colonialism as a driver of climate vulnerability. The Court also emphasized the difficulty of proving a “direct and certain causal link” between colonial acts and current climate harms, a standard that risks letting former colonial powers evade responsibility.
Despite the ICJ’s partial recognition of customary law as a basis for claims, its reluctance to engage with colonial legacies leaves a critical gap in global climate justice. The greenhouse gases driving current climate crises were largely emitted during the industrial rise of former colonial powers, while colonial practices, such as the destruction of Madagascar’s drought-resilient vegetation, compounded vulnerability for communities like the Antandroy.
The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights now has the opportunity to fill that gap. Since May 2025, the Court has been reviewing a request for an advisory opinion on African states’ human rights obligations in the context of climate change. Advocates hope the Court will explicitly link climate justice to reparative justice, foregrounding the enduring harms of colonialism and climate change on African communities. A ruling of this kind could give life to the Year of Reparations, advance the African Commission’s 2022 Resolution on Africa’s Reparations Agenda, and send a powerful message to the ICJ and the world: true climate justice must confront the legacies of colonialism.
