Human Rights and Climate Change
The previous post referred to the view that fundamental law “already includes our obligations towards the future interests of people living now or of people who will live in the future.” (Behrendt, 2024). Legal obligations towards future generations were seen as grounded in the human rights expressed in texts such as the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Olsson (2023) examined the relation between Climate Change and Human Rights in the context of the European Convention on Human Rights, giving prominence to Article 2 which establishes the right to life and Article 8 which states that everyone has the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence and referring to Article 34, which addresses the nature of victimhood in climate change. She cited three cases which were pending at the time of writing but have now been decided: KlimaSeniorinnen v. Switzerland, Carême v. France, and Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal