Dissertation

Collective human rights as an (onto)logical solution to climate change: reconceptualizing, applying and proceduralizing an overlooked category of human rights

Holtz defended her dissertation ‘Collective human rights as an (onto)logical solution to climate change: reconceptualizing, applying and proceduralizing an overlooked category of human rights’ on 16 October 2025. The doctoral research was supervised by Carsten Stahn and Daniëlla Dam-de Jong.

Author: Jolein Holtz
Date: 16 October 2025
Links: Collective human rights as an (onto)logical solution to climate change: reconceptualizing, applying and proceduralizing an overlooked category of human rights

This dissertation explores the potential role of collective human rights to the human rights approach to climate change. From an interdisciplinary perspective premised on the study of ontology, it positions collective rights as representing another way of being with the world. It argues through a ‘lifecycle’ analysis of collective rights – conceptualization, application and proceduralization – that regarding collective human rights as a vehicle for ontological flexibility within the rights discourse can provide normative clarity to a category of rights that has been plagued by ambiguity. This, in turn, can provide a myriad of climate advantages as the hurdles to climate change can similarly be linked to the singular ontological roots of the rights tradition. Ultimately, this dissertation calls for a new lens to the human rights approach to climate change, highlighting the necessity of collective human rights to enhance its effectiveness. More broadly, it contains a moral call to allow the flourishing of ontological diversity within human rights law. It highlights the dichotomous thinking of the rights tradition, emphasizing the ‘local’ as an important third space to be considered and identifying an associated expansion of duty bearers - together more closely matching the complex temporal and spatial scope of climate change.