The climate crisis, human rights and the Klimaseniorinnen case

International Bar Association: Global Insight podcasts

In April 2024, a group of older Swiss women successfully argued before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) that the Swiss government was failing to take sufficient action on climate change, violating their human rights as a disproportionately affected group under the European Convention on Human Rights. However, the Swiss parliament rejected the judgment in Klimaseniorinnen v Switzerland, claiming the ECtHR had overstepped its legal boundaries and engaged in ‘inappropriate judicial activism’, a stance later supported by the Swiss Federal Council, the country’s highest executive authority.
Switzerland has since presented a National Action Report on climate instead, which critics argue will not adequately implement the Court’s judgment.
This podcast explores the impact and fallout of the case.
With:

• Richard Harvey, Legal Counsel at Greenpeace UK
• Elizabeth Stern, claimant in KlimaSeniorinnen v Switzerland
• Professor Annalisa Savaresi, Centre for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Law at the University of East Finland; University of Stirling, Scotland