ARUSHA, Tanzania – Greenpeace Africa has submitted an amicus curiae brief before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR), arguing that climate destruction is a systematic, ongoing violation of the rights of people across the African continent.
“This case is about justice for frontline communities already bearing the costs of a climate crisis they are least responsible for,” said Eugene Perumal, Governance and Legal Advisor at Greenpeace Africa. “Across the continent, communities are already living with the consequences of decisions made without their consent. We are asking the Court to affirm that governments must protect people and to draw a hard line against this ongoing corporate impunity.”
The submission situates the climate crisis within a broader pattern of extractive economic models imposed across Africa, from fossil fuel extraction to mining, deforestation and industrial agriculture. Greenpeace Africa argues that these industries threaten the rights to life, health, food, water, and a healthy environment, and that governments have binding duties under the African Charter to prevent harm, ensure transparency and public participation, and provide remedies to affected communities.[1]
Greenpeace Africa argues that allowing multinational corporations to expand without meaningful environmental safeguards constitutes a fundamental failure of the State’s duty to protect the rights to life, health, and a satisfactory environment.
The submission also highlights the growing risk posed by industrial livestock expansion – a relatively new but rapidly emerging threat on the continent. Unlike traditional pastoralist and smallholder systems, industrial meat production concentrates environmental damage, drives deforestation, and shifts control of food systems away from local communities toward multinational corporations.
As part of this broader trend, the brief references the planned expansion of JBS, the world’s largest meat company, into Nigeria. The proposed US$2.5 billion investment in industrial meat processing illustrates how global agribusiness is seeking to establish a foothold in African markets, raising concerns about environmental impacts, lack of public consultation, and the long-term implications for local food systems and livelihoods.
Invoking Article 21(5) of the African Charter – which obliges States to “eliminate all forms of foreign economic exploitation, particularly that which is practised by international monopolies” – the submission argues that the facilitation of extractive corporate expansion, without transparency, public participation, or environmental impact assessment, constitutes a direct failure of its duty to protect.
The submission draws the landmark precedent of SERAC v. Nigeria (2001), arising from Shell’s catastrophic oil operations in Ogoniland, which established that states have a positive duty to regulate corporations, conduct and publish impact assessments, and guarantee meaningful community participation before major industrial development proceeds.
Elizabeth Atieno, Food Campaigner at Greenpeace Africa, said:
“The projects being approved today will determine who controls our land, our food systems and the health of our planet in the future. We look to the Court for a powerful advisory opinion that cements the rights of African communities to say no to extractive agriculture, and sends a definitive message to corporate exploiters that their time for operating with impunity on this continent is over.”
ENDS
Notes:
[1] For a summary of what the African Court heard on Monday 30 March, see Greenpeace Africa release. For access to Greenpeace Africa’s Amicus Curiae submission to the African Court please contact Greenpeace Africa via the contact information below.
This proceeding is part of an unprecedented global quartet of parallel advisory proceedings before the world’s four highest international courts, expected to produce the most authoritative rulings on climate and human rights law in history.
Contacts:
Ferdinand Omondi, Communications and Story Manager at Greenpeace Africa, +254 722 505 233, [email protected]
Joe Evans, Agriculture Global Comms Lead at Greenpeace UK, +44 7890 595387, [email protected]
Greenpeace Africa Press Desk: [email protected]
Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), [email protected]
