The climate ladies win in Strasbourg (and make history)

I'm more than 2,500 ladies of the climate who made history on Tuesday 9 April. They brought their country, there Swissbefore the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for not having put in place enough tools to combat climate change, and won. On the same day as the European Union Weather Service Copernicus reported that March 2024 was the warmest March on recordand it is the tenth month in a row to break this record.

The sentence

It is the first time that the Grand Chamber of the Court has ruled on such a case, recognizing that the lack of measures to protect the environment are a violation of human rights, in particular that of private and family life (art.8 ECHR), which state authorities must protect “from the serious consequences of climate change on lives, health, well-being and quality of life”, as written in the press release. The group, called KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz (translated into Italian: «the elderly for the climate») pointed out that ever-increasing heat waves are a risk to their health.

For the Court, Switzerland failed to quantify a limit on national greenhouse gas emissions and did not apply any measures to ensure that emissions reduction targets were achieved. The opinion of the Court it is not contestableand constitutes a precedent for the Swiss national courts.

Who are the «Seniorinnen»

This legal action also drew attention to the dangers of heat for older segments of the population. The members of Anziane per il clima go to 64 years and over and are supported by Greenwich Switzerland, which also supports them with regard to procedural costs. They are always looking for new co-plaintiffs, who do not have to pay a fee to register: «Since the heat periods are a serious health risk for us elderly women and that everything we care about is at stake, it is urgent to commit ourselves in any way to stop the climate catastrophe”, wrote Basel co-president Rosmarie Wydler-Wälti on their membership flyer. In 2016 they had already filed a first lawsuit against the Swiss Confederation, which was ultimately rejected by the federal court.

In a video of presentation, they are defined as «hot flash experts». They don't even have an Instagram profile, but during this journey before the Court they have unfurled their banners alongside much younger activiststhose we are used to seeing at the forefront of demonstrations, and their colorful signs against the gray sky of Strasbourg: «To our leaders: we will not forget and we will not give up» and «Time is up for our governments».

The other cases

Activists and supporters, including Greta Thunbergwaiting outside the building, hoped for a similar resolution also for the case of six young Portugueseall aged between 12 and 25, who sued Portugal, along with other European Union states and Russia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Switzerland and Norway.

Cláudia, Martim and Mariana Duarte Agostinho, Catarina dos Santos Mota, Sofia and Andrédos Santos Oliveira decided to take action in 2017, after the fires in Portugal between summer and autumn they had killed more than 100 people. Thanks to crowdfunding and the help of the Global Legal Action Network, the six managed to bring their requests to the attention of the Grand Chamber. The fact that the hearing took place is an even more exceptional fact, because the young people arrived before the Court without having discussed the case before the internal Portuguese courts, and because they called into question more than 30 States, all accused of not having maintained The Paris Agreements on emissions and thus put populations, and their generation in particular, at risk. The Court, however, rejected the appeal, also due to the failure to refer to the Portuguese courts.

Along with them, the case of was also rejected Damien Carême, former mayor of Grande-Synthe, who had sued France: his municipality of origin, on the north-eastern coast of France, is at risk of flooding. Since Carême now lives in Brussels, where he is an MEP, he was not granted victim status.

One in threeso, but it's the beginning of another phase of the fight against climate changeand it doesn't just concern the very young (who, among other things, have always said so): as Sofia Oliveira commented in a statement, the victory of the Swiss ladies “is also a victory for us and for everyone”.