In 2015, nearly two dozen American youth sued the federal government, alleging that the United States violated their constitutional rights by facilitating the burning of fossil fuels and allowing greenhouse gas emissions to rise to dangerous levels. Their case, known as Juliana v. U.S., was dismissed in federal courts, but inspired dozens of youth climate lawsuits including successful climate cases in Montana and Hawaiʻi.

Now, 15 of those same Juliana plaintiffs, including four Indigenous plaintiffs, are taking their case internationally in the hopes that the global community will pressure the U.S. government to act.

Last week, they filed a petition at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights , a seven-member commission that for decades has evaluated human rights violations across

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