Climate activists celebrate landmark ruling on rights

Weak government climate policies violate fundamental human rights, the European court of human rights has ruled.

- Ajit Niranjan

In a landmark decision on one of three major climate cases, the first such rulings by an international court, the ECHR raised judicial pressure on governments to stop filling the atmosphere with gases that make extreme weather more violent.

The court's top bench ruled that Switzerland had violated the rights of a group of older Swiss women to family life, but threw out a French mayor's case against France and that of a group of young Portuguese people against 32 European countries.

"It feels like a mixed result because two of the cases were inadmissible," said Corina Heri, a law researcher at the University of Zürich. "But actually it's a huge success." The court, which calls itself "the conscience of Europe”, found Switzerland had failed to comply with its duty to stop climate change. It also set out a path for organisations to bring further cases on behalf of applicants.

The Swiss verdict opens up all 46 members of the Council of Europe to similar cases in national courts that they are likely to lose.

Joie Chowdhury, an attorney at the Centre for International Environmental Law campaign group, said the judgment left no doubt the climate crisis was a human rights crisis. "We expect this ruling to influence climate action and climate litigation across Europe and far beyond," she said.