ECHR Ruling on Switzerland’s Failures on Climate Change Amounts to a Human Rights Violation.
GHRTV
11-04-2024
Shyamali Kumar
Women’s Rights Researcher,
Global Human Rights Defence.
A group of 2,000 Swiss women, known as KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz, has won a significant ruling on holding governments accountable for addressing climate change. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found that Switzerland failed to implement sufficient climate policies, violating women's human rights. This case could influence other European countries and other international bodies in their decisions about the legal ramifications of inadequate climate policies. The group, which initially brought the case against Switzerland in November 2016, established a pathway for European citizens and civil society groups to successfully sue their countries for better climate policy.
The group relied partly on their medical vulnerability as senior citizens to excessive heat caused by climate change. Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show that the Swiss population of senior women, especially those over 75, are more prone to heat-related medical problems like dehydration, hyperthermia, fatigue, loss of consciousness, heat cramps, and heat strokes. Within Switzerland, they are also the most vulnerable to exacerbated health problems, including respiratory, cardiovascular, and kidney problems in excessive heat.
The women's suit only affects the law in Switzerland, but their win could support similar frameworks to hold countries accountable in the Global South. The group, supported by Greenpeace, spent nearly eight years litigating its case in Swiss courts before going to the ECHR. The ECHR found that the Swiss legal process had failed to give a remedy for what it identified as these violations of the convention rights.
Switzerland will now be obligated to update its climate change policies, but the ECHR can't tell the Swiss government what policies must be implemented. Instead, it just says that they must be more consistent with what the climate science says, but with deference to the policy prerogatives and democratic processes of the Swiss government.
The decision affirms that European Human Rights law requires governments to pursue a high level of climate ambition. Switzerland is likely to take the court's decision seriously and it could encourage more domestic cases in countries that are party to the convention. It could also influence other international bodies, specifically the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, which is due to discuss an advisory opinion on climate change and human rights in the coming weeks.
Sources and further readings:
Ajit Niranjan, The Guardian (2024, April 9), “Human rights violated by Swiss inaction on climate, ECHR rules in landmark case”. Accessed April 11th, 2024 from Human rights violated by Swiss inaction on climate, ECHR rules in landmark case | Climate crisis | The Guardian
Ellen Ioanes, Vox (2024, April 9), “How 2,000 elderly Swiss women won a landmark climate case”. Accessed April 11th, 2024 from Swiss senior women win ECHR case - Vox
Giorgina Rannard, BBC (2024, April 9), “European court rules human rights violated by climate inaction”. Accessed April 11th, 2024 from European court rules human rights violated by climate inaction (bbc.com)
