US is violating human rights laws by backing fossil fuels, say young activists in new petition | International law

By continuing to finance and support an energy system based on fossil fuel, the United States violates international law, a group of young people has competed in an international human rights organization.

The petition to the Inter -American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), tabled late Tuesday and shared exclusively with the Guardian, said that the government’s actions have violated the human rights of the petitioners.

“The actions of the United States in the past 50 years are an unjustified international act that involves its international responsibility,” the petition told the Washington DC committee.

The IACHR, which is part of the organization of American states, is an almost judicial organization that examines and investigates complaints concerning human rights violations, then publishes relationships with conclusions and recommendations to the accused states. His recommendations are not legally binding.

The advocacy comes after the publication of two advisory opinions strongly written on the climate crisis of two main international courts. It was deposited by 15 of the 21 youth climate activists who previously brought a revolutionary federal climate trial Juliana against US, which was actually rejected last year.

“This petition concerns truth and responsibility,” said Levi, an 18 -year -old petitioner who was eight years old when the Juliana affair was deposited. “For over 50 years, the American government has knowingly protected the interests of fossil fuels while putting people, especially young people, in danger.”

Like Juliana, the new deposit details the countless ways whose climate crisis has made young petitioners suffer. Levi, for example, grew up in Florida on the island of Barrière Indialantic. He and his family were often forced to evacuate in the midst of dangerous hurricanes; Finally, they became so serious and frequent that his parents decided that the move was the only option.

“Part of the reason we left was so that my little sister could grow in a house with a lower risk of flood,” he said. “One of the most difficult moments was to lose my school after its closing permanently due to storm damage.”

Levi and other young activists accuse the United States of violating international human rights law, customary international law and the American declaration on human rights and duties – an international human rights instrument which guarantees economic, social and cultural rights, as well as equality under the law.

The offer comes just after the publication of an advisory opinion in early July of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (I / A HR), an organization distinct from human rights which can issue restrictive recommendations but which the United States does not recognize. Opinion has declared that the climate crisis includes “extraordinary risks” felt by already vulnerable populations, and that the American declaration on human rights and duties obliges countries to set ambitious objectives of greenhouse gas cup.

“Before that happened, we had already planned to deposit this,” said Kelly Matheson, deputy director of the global strategy of the non -profit law firm OUR Children’s Trust, who represents the petitioners. “Timing is pure serendipity.”

The HR opinion of the I / A court is not binding and the United States does not recognize the jurisdiction of the high level court from which it came. However, international courts and commissions may rely on opinions aimed at interpreting the law.

By denying the complainants “access to justice” – and by expanding the production of fossil fuels – the United States violates a range of rights guaranteed to young activists, including the right to life, freedom and security; the right to health; the right to the advantages of culture; and special protections for children.

“We brought our business to the Inter -American Commission on Human Rights because the national courts would not hear the complete history,” said Levi. “This petition is a statement that what has happened to us is not only unhappy or political, but whether it is a violation of our human rights.”

Petitioners also accuse the United States of violating its right to a healthy climate, referring to another recent advice notice not binding on greenhouse gas emissions from the International Court of Justice – a superior court of the United Nations. Young activists have been trapped in this violation since birth, said Matheson.

“These young people were born in an emergency climate emergency, they were born in violation of rights and they lived each day with their right to a healthy viole climate system,” she said. “We could arrive at a healthy climate system by 2100 if we make changes, but even in this case, these young complainants will live their whole life without ever being able to fully enjoy and exercise their right to a healthy climate system … Their hope is that their children or their grandchildren could.”

Placed in 2015, Juliana against US argued that the government had violated the constitutional rights of applicants to pro-fossil fuel policies. Our children’s trust, who brought the case, made his last attempt to relaunch the case last year by asking the Supreme Court to authorize the prosecution to proceed to the trial before a lower court; Its offer was refused in March.

By refusing young challengers access to effective remedies for the climate crisis and by continually making damage, the courts have not fulfilled its international legal obligations, the new file indicates.

The United States also targets its obligations by continuing to perpetuate an energy system based on fossil fuel, supports the petition at IACHR.

“The American government, the main cumulative contributor to climate change, has harmed our health, our homes, our cultures and our future,” said Levi.

With the new petition, young activists demand “precautionary measures” aimed at protecting their rights and obligations, as well as an audience. In their best case, the IACHR would visit the United States to hear the stories of the petitioners, then would hold a public hearing to allow them to present its evidence to the world, and finally declare that the United States has committed “unjustified acts” and to make recommendations to push the country to improve its behavior.

“We want the Commission to declare that these systemic actions have violated our rights under the American Declaration on Human Rights and Duties,” said Levi. “This would cause legal weight through the Americas and would help establish a precedent that governments cannot continue to violate our rights without consequences.”

Michael Gerrard, an environmental law expert at Columbia University, said the commission that militants petition tend to act slowly. The organization took five years to examine a complaint focused on pollution of a Louisiana community filed in 2005.

If the Commission issues solid recommendations for the United States, he said, US officials will have no obligation to follow it.

“The Trump administration would not care about what this commission says, but the next administration could,” he added.

The petition follows the news that the planet by the planet of the United States increased in the first half of 2025. It also occurs in the midst of generalized attacks against climatic protections by the Trump administration, which launched more than 150 anti-environmental and anti-renewable energy actions since the retirement of the White House in January.

“We pass this petition now because science is urgent, the damage is accelerating and our rights are still raped,” said Levi.

Our children’s confidence represented young people in a range of state and federal proceedings. During a two-day hearing in Montana this month, the young complainants in a federal case argued that three of the executive decrees in Trump pro-fossil fuel should be blocked. The law firm in 2023 won a historic victory in the trial held against Montana, when a judge judged that the pro-fossil fuel policies violated a group of rights for young applicants under the Constitution of the State.

A few hours before our children’s trust deposited the petition, Trump sent the United Nations to assert that the climate crisis was the “greatest work of the world” and “a hoax constituted by people with bad intentions”.

“This courageous action aims to tell the truth and to do something,” said James R May, of the lawyer for our children’s confidence.