Youth for Climate Justice v. Austria, et al.

In 2020, six Portuguese youth and the Global Legal Action Network filed suit in the European Court of Human Rights against 33 European countries, alleging countries had violated their human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to address climate change.

This case was inspired by the Portuguese fires of 2017, which were the country's worst forest fires in its history and claimed 60 people's lives. These increasing natural disasters and their growing severity can be attributed to climate change and would allow for a case against these countries with significant emission rates and no plans to reduce them properly.

In November 2020, the European Court of Human Rights accepted and fast-tracked the case. Only a tiny minority of cases are fast-tracked before the European Court of Human Rights.

On February 26th, 2021, the European Court of Human Rights denied a motion to overturn the fast-track decision. The defendants must submit their defense by May 27th, 2021.

The case continues to use an innovative source of funding, crowdsourcing resources on the platform Crowd Justice.

Links

 * Sabin Center Database
 * Grantham Research Institute
 * Brief by human rights groups on why human rights do not stop at borders - Relevant for cases in which citizens sue countries they do not live in
 * Crowd Justice crowdfunding case page
 * Interventions (amicus briefs) filled in the case
 * Climate Change on Trial Before the European Court of Human Rights - webinar from Climate Litigation Accelerator
 * https://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/09/25/portuguese-children-launch-crowdfunding-campaign-climate-lawsuit/
 * https://www.ecowatch.com/portugal-kids-climate-lawsuit-2489744489.html
 * European Journal of International Law