Climate as A Human Right: Lessons From Klimaseniorinnen

This chapter investigates the influential ruling in Verein Klima Seniorinnen Schweiz V Switzerland
by the European Court of Human Rights and that for the very first time specifically linked a
nation’s failure to initiate appropriate action on climate change to human rights infringements
according to the European Convention on Human Rights. A group of elderly Swiss women initiated
the case, which ultimately resulted in a ruling stating that failing to take actions appropriately on
climate change contradicted obligations under Article 8 of European Convention of Human Rights,
ECHR (Right to Private and Family life). The subject matter analyses the judgment’s legal
reasoning, dissidents, and pedagogical relevance with the objective to determine the manner in
which it ushers in an era of change in climate jurisprudence by means of doctrinal and
comparative analysis. The developing intersection of Constitutional Civil as well as human rights
strategies to litigation regarding climate change has been demonstrated by comparative allusions
to Urgenda V Netherlands and Neubauer V Germany. The case affords a profound insight to the law
students regarding governmental liabilities, justiciability and the relationship between legal
practice and science.