Women’s won the case against the government in ECTHR
The older Swiss women won the argument that their government’s efforts to fight against a changed environment will put them at risk. The European Court of Human Rights decided in favour of elder women on Tuesday (9 April).
The decision of the European Court that was brought by 2000 women will leave an impact across Europe and beyond Europe, which sets an example of how a court deals with the situation of environmental violations.
A group of six young Portuguese are against 32 European governments, and the former mayor of a low-lying French coastal town also stands against 32 European governments. These two climate-related similar cases were rejected by the court.
Klima Seniorinnen, who’s one of the Swiss women, argued that the government’s climate inactions put them at risk of dying during heatwaves. The government has failed to meet its target of declining the greenhouse gas effect, and there have been gaps in its domestic regulatory framework, Court President Siofra O’Leary said to Swiss women in her ruling.
Siofra O’Leary also said, “Future generations may have to face the heavy burden of the present-time failures of climate change. One of the Swiss women” Rosmarie Wydler-Walter said that she struggled a lot to hold onto the decision. “We keep asking our lawyers, is that right? And they tell us, ‘It’s the most you could have had. The biggest victory possible.”
A spokesperson for the Swiss Energy Minister said that ‘we are on a good path. We’re doing a lot.’
The rise of climate legal cases
The number of lawsuits increased with time in front of 17 judge panels in Strasbourg, France, brought by communities that are against governments based on human rights law.
The European Commission said that they are paying attention to the decision. A spokesman for the Commission said, “These cases and legal arguments are reminding us about the importance and urgency of our citizens to climate action.”
These environmental movements and court decisions in the Swiss case opened a new chapter in climate litigation. “Arguing against the government like Swiss women did set an example for politics; that’s a blueprint for how we argued against the government’s failures,” Ruth Delbaere, legal campaigns director, said.
The Swiss did their best to argue against the government over their failures, which revised the target of 2030 to get in line with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).
The case was brought by a Portuguese youngster, and the court ruled that it is possible that greenhouse gases may affect the state of borders, but it did not justify prosecuting a case across multiple jurisdictions.
One of the Portuguese teens said, “I really hope we win against all countries, so obviously.” “But the most important thing is that the court said in the case of Swiss women that we should need to emit more to protect human rights. So, their win is a win for all of us.