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The health of older persons is especially threatened by climate change, as heat waves are made worse. After having exhausted all domestic legal remedies available, on 26 November 2020, KlimaSeniorinnen, an association of senior women (Senior Women for Climate Protection Switzerland), took the Swiss government to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). They also requested the case be treated under the expenditure procedure pursuant to Article 41 of the Rules of the Court.

The application listed three main complaints:

Switzerland's inadequate climate policies violate their rights to life and health under Articles 2 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR);

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court rejected their case on arbitrary grounds, violating their right to a fair trial under Article 6; and

Swiss authorities and courts failed to address the substance of their complaints, violating their right to an effective remedy under Article 13.

The ECtHR accepted the case, communicating that decision to the Swiss government on 25 March 2021. The ECtHR gave the case priority status and called on Switzerland to submit a response by 16 July 2021, which it filed in time. On 4 September 2024, the ECtHR issued its judgment, finding that the Swiss government failed to fulfill its ‘positive obligations’ to protect with regard to climate change.

Next week marks the next step in implementing the KlimaSeniorinnen judgment of the ECtHR, with a meetingof Ministers' Deputies taking place as part of the Committee of Ministers' monitoring of the implementation of the judgment.

Civil society organizations have been made aware of concerns that, in a departure from typical practice, the KlimaSeniorinnen case has been scheduled for debate at this first meeting, instead of the usual preliminary consideration. If true, this could result in an open-and-shut monitoring process that would be highly problematic, given concerns from the applicants and civil society that current measures by the government do not suffice to implement the judgment. As a result, some of those organizations have prepared a letter to inform the other governments participating in this process to ask them to follow the usual process, and to continue monitoring the implementation of the judgment.

Ahead of the meeting of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers' human rights meeting, supporters urgently appeal to other Member States to reject Switzerland's attempt to close the supervision of the KlimaSeniorinnen case prematurely, as the Swiss government has not yet complied with the Grand Chamber's judgment.

If governments were to accept Switzerland's rushed attempt to bypass the traditional process established at the Council of Europe to supervise the execution of ECtHR judgments would create a dangerous precedent with implications expanding beyond climate justice.

Please read the urgent appeal drafted by Greenpeace, Climate Litigation and the Center for International Environmental Law in close consultation with lawyers supporting the KlimaSeniorinnen.

Deadline for endorsement: Friday, 28 February, 3pm CET (endorsements will still be welcomed up to Monday, 3 March, 3pm CET)

The sign-on letter is here.

See case materials: Verein KlimaSeniorinnen v Switzerland (ECtHR)

See on HLRN News “Swiss Women Win Landmark ECHR Climate Case,” 9 April 2024