Open Letter to Tuvalu and Ireland: Implementing human rights in the second TAFF Conference

Dear Minister O'Brien,

Dear Minister Dr Talia,

We, the undersigned organisations, warmly congratulate Tuvalu and Ireland on agreeing to co-host the second Transitioning Away From Fossil Fuels Conference in Tuvalu. We wish you every success in advancing this important global process.

As organisations committed to the protection and promotion of human rights, we were encouraged to see that the Report on the 1st Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels lays a good foundation for integrating international human rights law into efforts to transition away from fossil fuels. We particularly welcome Action Point 6, which recognises the importance of a rights-based, territorially grounded approach that relies on locally led solutions for a just transition.

We also appreciate the report's emphasis on human rights throughout its proposed pathways:

• Pathway 1 rightly identifies implementation as the central focus and recognises that effective implementation must guarantee the protection of human rights.

• Pathway 2 highlights the importance of international cooperation that upholds human rights standards while accelerating global progress and fostering policy coherence.

• Pathway 3 recognises that national and regional roadmaps should be grounded in both climate science and human rights, ensuring that the transition is equitable, participatory, and aligned with the obligation to keep global temperature rise to below 1.5°C.

These are important and welcome developments. We commend the leadership that Colombia and the Netherlands showed in Santa Marta, as well as their efforts to build a coherent framework for implementing the commitment to transition away from fossil fuels.

At the same time, we believe the forthcoming second conference presents a unique opportunity to move beyond recognising the importance of human rights and towards embedding them systematically throughout the conference process and its outcomes. Human rights should not be treated solely as a cross-cutting consideration but also, as affirmed by the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion, as core legal obligations that must shape decision-making, accountability, and implementation.

To that end, we respectfully encourage your consideration of several concrete measures for the next (pre)conference:

• Establish a dedicated human rights workstream within the (pre)conference process to adopt a common framework of existing human rights principles and safeguards, grounded in international law, to guide and measure transition policies. These include transparency, access to information, meaningful participation - including a safe and enabling civic space for environmental human rights and labour rights defenders -, access to justice, non-discrimination, the duty of non-retrogression, and the obligation to protect, respect and fulfil the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and the duty to prevent significant harm to the environment and climate system. This stream should also ensure concrete discussions and the elaboration of measures for the protection of marginalised groups and rights-holders, including but not limited to children, older persons, workers and unions, women, gender-diverse persons, Free, Prior and Informed Consent and collective rights of Indigenous Peoples, and persons living with disabilities.

• Organise a dialogue during the high-level segment of the conference to ensure discussions, sharing of best practices, and concrete measures for the integration of human rights obligations under international law across transition policies, addressing present and emerging human rights issues related to the just transition away from fossil fuels and advancing the protection and fulfilment of all human rights.

• Use the International Court of Justice's Advisory Opinion on climate change as a legal foundation to inform the next conference and strengthen international cooperation and implementation. The Court affirmed that, under international human rights and environmental law, States have a duty to cooperate and to prevent significant harm to the environment and the climate system in the context of climate change. Grounding discussions in these legal obligations and principles can provide a common framework for advancing effective action toward transitioning away from fossil fuels in a manner consistent with human rights obligations.

• Ensure the Scientific Panel for the Global Energy Transition (SPGET) applies principles of human rights, intergenerational equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC) in providing technical support for the roadmaps under workstream 1. The law and science are clear: States have the obligation to keep global temperature rise below 1.5°C and must do so in a fair, just, and equitable way.

• Strengthen implementation by encouraging reporting on how participating countries are integrating their human rights obligations into their transition strategies and policies, nationally determined contributions and nationally developed roadmaps.

• Ensure that all rights-holders, including environmental human rights defenders, and government representatives who wish to attend the conference do not face barriers to participation. An e-visa system enabling all accredited delegates to obtain a visa within two weeks of applying would significantly enhance participation opportunities.

We believe these measures would strengthen the legitimacy, effectiveness, and fairness of the conference while reinforcing the growing international consensus that ambitious climate action and the protection of human rights are mutually reinforcing objectives.

We would welcome the opportunity to discuss these ideas with you and your teams and to explore how human rights organisations can constructively contribute to making the next conference a landmark moment for a just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels that is consistent with human rights. We would be grateful for the opportunity to arrange an online meeting at your convenience. If you are available, please contact [email protected] to schedule the meeting.

Thank you for your leadership and for considering these proposals. We look forward to working with you to ensure that the next conference sets a global benchmark for integrating human rights into the transition away from fossil fuels.

Sincerely,

Amnesty International

Association for Farmers Rights Defense, AFRD

Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)

Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO)

Child Rights International Network (CRIN)

Climate Rights International

Coalition des Volontaires pour la Paix et le Développement, CVPD-DR

Disability Peoples Forum Uganda

Doctors for Planetary Health - West Coast (Canada)

Ecoseres unidad

EnGen Collaborative

Fiscalía del Medio Ambiente (FIMA)

Global Participe

Habitat Defenders Africa

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)

Jonge Klimaatbeweging

MBRDO

MenaFem Movement

Milieudefensie - Friends of the Earth Netherlands

Moroccan Association of Green Economy for Environment and Climate Justice

Natural Justice

Reclame Fossielvrij (Fossil Free Advertising)

Red Dominicana de Estudios y Empoderamiento Afridescendiente-REDAFROs-

Resilient40

Save the Children

Scottish Association for Marine Science

Sustainable Strategic Solutions

The Palestinian Initiative for Climate Strategy (PICS)

Urgenda

World's Youth for Climate Justice (WYCJ)