International court condemns Switzerland in landmark climate ruling
Published April 9, 2024 5:53pm Protesters hold pennants during a rally before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decides in three separate cases if states are doing enough in the face of global warming in rulings that could force them to do more, in Strasbourg, eastern France, on April 9, 2024. All three cases […]
Tomas Kauer - News Moderator 
Europe’s top rights court ruled on Tuesday that Switzerland was not doing enough to tackle climate change, in its first such ruling against a state on the subject.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued its decision after a Swiss association of older women concerned about the consequences of global warming argued that the Swiss authorities were not taking enough action to mitigate climate change.
It found the Swiss state had violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the “right to respect for private and family life,” according to the ruling seen by AFP.
The court however threw out two other cases also concerning government policies on climate change on procedural grounds.
It dismissed a petition from six Portuguese people, aged 12 to 24, against 32 states including their own as the case had not exhausted all remedies at the national level.
In a third case, the court rejected a claim from a former French mayor that the inaction of the French state posed the risk of his town being submerged under the North Sea.
The court found that he was not a victim in the case as he had moved to Brussels.
In a sign of the importance of the issue of climate change, all three cases were treated as priority by the Grand Chamber of the ECHR, whose 17 judges can set a potentially crucial legal precedent
— Agence France-Presse
