Companies’ Human Rights: The Implications for a Human Rights Approach to Climate Change Litigation in South Africa

Taking a human rights approach to climate litigation is a more recent phenomenon in Africa than it is in the states of the Global North. Using South Africa as a case study, this article examines that approach and the implications of companies' competence to assert human rights. It finds that companies, like natural persons, have certain human rights in South Africa, and that the human rights approach, which appears promising to litigant individuals and NGOs, is also available to companies. It argues that a human rights approach to climate change litigation can be used either positively by litigant individuals and NGOs or negatively by companies in the country.