A group of Swiss women won a landmark climate justice battle in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) this week, in a ruling that presses governments across Europe to step up over the climate crisis.
The judgment in Strasbourg, France, is the ECHR’s first on global warming and paves the way for like-minded activists in other countries to hold policymakers to account. “We expect this ruling to influence climate action and climate litigation across Europe and far beyond,” said Joie Chowdhury, an attorney at the Centre for International Environmental Law campaign group.
The case was brought by the KlimaSeniorinnen (Senior Women for Climate Protection), a 2,400-strong association of Swiss women mostly in their 70s. They argued that their age and gender made them especially vulnerable to heatwaves linked to climate change.
Two other climate cases were deemed inadmissible by judges, but the court found in favour of the KlimaSeniorinnen, ruling that Switzerland’s failure to curb emissions had violated their right to family life. Chowdhury said the verdict had been a historic victory which left no doubt that the climate crisis was also a human rights crisis.
“States have human rights obligations to act urgently and effectively and in line with the best available science to prevent further devastation and harm to people and the environment,” she said.
Image: Shervine Nafissi/Greenpeace
