On Tuesday, a group of 2,000 Swiss women 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 the women’s human rights.
The case could influence other European countries, as well as other international bodies, in their decisions about the legal ramifications of inadequate climate policies.
KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz, a group of women climate activists all over the age of 64, initially brought the case against Switzerland in November 2016. After eight years of litigation, Tuesday’s ruling establishes a pathway for European citizens and civil society groups to successfully sue their countries for better climate policy.
That’s important because there are several pending climate change cases at the Court, which is based in Strasbourg, France, including a case against the Norwegian government alleging oil and gas exploration licenses violate citizens’ human rights. Establishing a precedent in the ECHR means that it could apply to the 45 other countries that are party to the European Convention on Human Rights.
“We keep asking our lawyers, ‘Is that right?,’” Rosmarie Wydler-Wälti, a leader of KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz, told Reuters. “And they tell us, ‘It’s the most you could have had. The biggest victory possible.’”
How did KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz win?
The women’s strategy relied partly on their medical vulnerability as senior citizens to excessive heat caused by climate change. Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, among others, 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,” according to the group. Within Switzerland, they are also the most vulnerable to exacerbated health…
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