Members intervene in pair of groundbreaking climate change-related human rights cases pending at the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights

Collectives of ESCR-Net members have filed third-party interventions in a pair of groundbreaking climate change-related human rights cases now pending before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. The two cases—Duarte Agostinho v. Portugal and 32 Other States, and Klimaseniorinnen v. Switzerland—are the first opportunities the Court will have to pronounce itself on important climate change-related human rights claims.

The intervention in the Duarte Agostinho and the submission in the Klimaseniorinnen case offered the Court international and comparative fundamental rights standards and jurisprudence on issues touching on the impacts of the climate crisis on the enjoyment of a healthy environment and related economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR), as well as the right to life; the disproportionate impacts of the climate crisis on the human rights of specific populations—including, in Klimaseniorinnen, on the rights of older women—and the corresponding State duty to ensure substantive equality as well as prevent and redress intersectional discrimination; and the State duty to prevent climate change-related human rights harm as well as other foreseeable harm utilizing maximum available resources and effectively regulating businesses.

In Duarte Agostinho, youth residents of Portugal represented by the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) petitioned for redress for climate change induced violations linked to their rights to life and healthy environment, among others, as harmed by 33 States under the jurisdiction of the European Court. The youths point to catastrophic recent climate events, including mass fires in Portugal, in their petition linking such harms to years of contributions to climate change by the respondent States.

The collective third-party intervention in Duarte Agostinho was by submitted by Al-Haq, ALTSEAN-Burma, Center for the Study of Law, Justice and Society – Dejusticia, Comisión Colombiana de Juristas (CCJ), Comité Ambiental en Defensa de la Vida (CADV), the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), FIAN International, Fédération Internationale des ligues des Droits de l’Homme (FIDH), the Global Initiative for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR), Human Rights Action (HRA), the International Human Rights Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law, Layla Hughes, Minority Rights Group International (MRG), Observatori DESC (ESCR observatory), the Oficina para América Latina de la Coalición Internacional para el Hábitat (HIC-AL), and coordinated by ESCR-Net.

In Klimaseniorinnen, a group of older women residing in Switzerland represented by Greenpeace petitioned the Court for redress related to violations linked to their lives and health, among other rights, by Switzerland’s contributions to climate change. The petitioners point to harmful heat waves and other significant harms posed by the climate crisis.

The third-party intervention in Klimaseniorinnen was submitted by ALTSEAN-Burma, Comisión Colombiana de Juristas (CCJ), Comité Ambiental en Defensa de la Vida (CADV), the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), FIAN International, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR), Human Rights Action (HRA), the International Human Rights Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law, Layla Hughes, Minority Rights Group International (MRG), Observatori DESC (ESCR observatory), the Oficina para América Latina de la Coalición Internacional para el Hábitat (HIC-AL) and the Women’s Legal Centre (WLC) and coordinated by ESCR-Net.