In a first, international court upholds right to be safe from climate change

A woman shows a placard reading “For feminist and social ecologic justice” in Toulouse, France, March 19th, 2021. | Photo by Alain Pitton / NurPhoto via Getty Images An international court has, for the first time, ruled that a country violated human rights by not protecting people from the effects of climate change. A Swiss association representing more than 2,000 older women (a third of whom are over the age of 75) filed a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights saying that their government put them at heightened risk during heatwaves. The court decided that the European Convention on Human Rights “encompasses a right for individuals to effective protection by the State authorities from the serious adverse effects of climate change on their lives, health, well-being and quality of life.” Swiss authorities violated the Convention, the court says in its judgment, by failing to adequately limit... Continue reading…