The Extraterritorial Obligations Consortium, a group of esteemed human rights organizations and academics including Amnesty International and UNC Asheville Professor Mark Gibney, have intervened in a landmark climate change case being considered before the European Court of Human Rights today. The case, brought about by six young people from Portugal, seeks to hold 33 European countries accountable for failing to do their part to avert climate catastrophe. The Extraterritorial Obligations Consortium have provided the Court with legal arguments on how government climate policies must protect the rights of people outside their borders.
“This case challenges the idea that states only have human rights obligations within their own territorial borders,” says Political Science Professor Mark Gibney. “With climate change, it is all too evident that the policies of one state can have a profound effect on the enjoyment of human rights by individuals in other countries. International human rights law has been slow to recognize this. If successful, this case will not only be a decisive win for the environment and both present and future generations, but for human rights in its entirety.”
The Court will decide on whether it agrees to proceed with the crowdfunded case, Duarte Agostinho and others v. Portugal and others, filed not only against Portugal, where the applicants live, but also 32 other countries – which comprise of EU members as well as Norway, Russia, Turkey, Switzerland, UK and Ukraine. The applicants accuse these countries of violating their human rights, including their right to life, by not taking adequate steps to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
“The climate crisis does not respect borders and our laws and policies must reflect this. To ensure justice for people most affected by heatwaves, drought and forest fires – particularly children – states must be required to tackle climate change and its impacts at home and abroad,” said Ashfaq Khalfan, Amnesty’s Law and Policy Director. “Governments can no longer act as if people outside their borders do not matter when they design their climate policies.”
“Those affected by climate change should be allowed to make claims against governments other than their own. If governments are only required to act on the rights of people living within their borders, it is easier for them to ignore the impacts on people in the most affected countries and be more lethargic in their work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Gibney.
If allowed to proceed, the case could set an important precedent, clearing the way for other climate lawsuits based on human rights arguments.
“This case is also important to ensure governments are required to design climate policy in a way that recognizes the particular climate risks to children and take the ambitious climate protection measures needed to protect their rights,” said Gamze Erdem Türkelli, of the University of Antwerp.
About the case…
The six applicants in this case, Cláudia Agostinho (21), Catarina Mota (20), Martim Agostinho (17), Sofia Oliveira (15), André Oliveira (12) and Mariana Agostinho (8), are suing the 27 European Union member states, as well as the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine for failing to make deep and urgent emissions cuts to safeguard their future. Learn more about this case and the students behind it at https://youth4climatejustice.org/
About the Extraterritorial Obligations Consortium…
The group intervening as a third party in the case is made up of members of the Extraterritorial Obligations Consortium which advocates for rights beyond borders.
Comprised of human rights organizations and academics from around the world, the group includes: Amnesty International; the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS); the Center for Transnational Environmental Accountability (CTEA); the Economic and Social Rights Centre (Hakijamii); FIAN International; the Great Lakes Initiative for Human Rights and Development (GLIHD); the University of Antwerp Law and Development Research Group; Prof. Dr. Mark Gibney; Dr. Gamze Erdem Turkelli; Dr. Sara Seck; Prof. Dr. Sigrun Skogly; Dr. Nicolas Carrillo-Santarelli; Prof. Dr. Jernej Letnar Cernic; Tom Mulisa; Dr. Nicholas Orago; Prof. Dr. Wouter Vandenhole; and Jingjing Zhang
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