Take the Klima Seniorinnen, the ‘Senior Women for Climate’: an association of more than 2,500 Swiss activists over the age of 60. The name may raise a smile, but their determination is very serious.
The Klima Seniorinnen say they are certainly fighting for the younger generations and for the future of the planet. But also for themselves: because the health of the over-60s, they stress, ‘is threatened by heatwaves made worse by the climate crisis’. In truth, they should not be the ones reminding us that older people – and women – are the first to suffer from the effects of global warming.
‘Older women’, they explain on their web page, ‘suffer particularly from increasingly intense and frequent heatwaves. Of course we are aware that older men, sick people and small children are also exposed to the harmful consequences of heatwaves and other effects of climate change. But by focusing the complaint on the proven higher incidence of harm among us women of an advanced age, we increase the chances of success of the case brought, which will benefit everyone’.
And so it was, this time. On 9 April, the Klima Seniorinnen achieved a historic victory at the European Court of Human Rights no less. They had appealed to the Court accusing their country, the Swiss Confederation, of inaction against the climate crisis.
Since 2016 the association has openly accused the Swiss government, through a series of legal actions before national courts, of failing to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Complaints that were always rejected in their own country.
So in March 2023 the Klima Seniorinnen decided to turn to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, submitting a detailed application.
After a year, the Court ruled in their favour. The Swiss state is manifestly neglecting the effort agreed at European and global level to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets (perhaps trusting in the beauty and inviolability of its magnificent natural heritage; or perhaps for other understandable reasons). Its conduct, therefore, violates some fundamental human rights.
Note: the ruling is objectively binding on all 46 member states of the Council of Europe, and is certainly an important legal precedent.
‘We won!’, the activists’ web page rightly proclaims in triumph, the day after the European ruling.
‘On Tuesday 9 April, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that, by not doing what is necessary against increasing global warming, Switzerland violates the rights of older women. Specifically, the court found a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) and recognised victim status for the Senior Women for Climate association, which currently has more than 2,500 members’.
Thanks to the Swiss Seniorinnen, therefore, for the first time a transnational court specialising in human rights such as the Strasbourg Court explicitly recognises the right to climate protection, and condemns governments’ inaction on the matter as a genuine violation of human rights.
You can find out more about the activities of the Klima Seniorinnen at this link:
https://anziane-clima.ch
