The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered Grand Chamber rulings in the cases of Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland, Carême v. France and Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and 32 Others on 9 April 2024.

The ECtHR ruled on three climate cases. In Klimaseniorinnen Schweiz and Others v Switzerland, a group representing more than 2,500 older Swiss women argued that their government’s failure to adequately mitigate global warming violated their human rights to health and life and puts them at risk of dying during heatwaves.

In Duarte Agostinho and Others v Portugal and 31 Other States six young Portuguese people argued that countries bound by the European Convention on Human Rights — the 27 EU states, as well as the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Russia and Turkey — had infringed several human rights after heatwaves and forest fires closed down their schools and risked their health. Amnesty International submitted a joint third-party intervention in the case on the obligation on governments to create climate policies which protect the rights of people outside their borders.

In the third case, Damien Carême, a former mayor of Grande-Synthe, a suburb of Dunkirk in northern France, argued that the French government has neglected its obligation to protect life by failing to take sufficient steps to prevent climate change and therefore heightening the risk of future flooding in the area.

The right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment was universally recognized by the UN General Assembly in 2022. Amnesty International is part of a coalition calling for the adoption of an additional protocol on the right to the European Convention on Human Rights which would help reinforce and clarify the ECtHR’s jurisprudence on environmental protection, including climate change. Summaries of today’s rulings can be accessed here.

Links:
Forthcoming rulings

Press release

Webcast of the hearing Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland (29/03/2023)

Webcast of the hearing Carême v. France (29/03/2023)

Webcast of the hearing Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and 32 Others (27/09/2023)

Belangrijk klimaatvonnis: is te weinig actie een schending van de mensenrechten?

Ruling: Violations of the European Convention for failing to implement sufficient measures to combat climate change / Questions and Answers on the rulings in three cases concerning climate change

Reacties op klimaatvonnis Europees Hof: ‘Onderschat de impact hiervan niet’