HOME | DD

Description

Europe once again showed the way. In a shattering victory the European Court on Human Rights ruled that climate change is an assault to human rights, notably the Right to Life and the Right to Respect for Private and Family Life.

The Court found that the Swiss Confederation had failed to comply with its duties (“positive obligations”) under the Convention concerning climate change. Yep, a country cannot be a bystander, and it cannot say that "it tried its best". It needs to active and achieve results. (That last bit is a new idea for politics, that's why judges need to remind them with overruling force.)

Climate concerns are now even more strongly enshrined in international law, which overrules the local squabbles of the laws in (fill in your country). In other words, you can demand action from your government and they shall have to consider that more important than politics, past decisions in national courts and even your country's Supreme Court. So this is just the beginning of a long series of government corrections.

This is what the superheroes of climate change look like... and I feel just as much like hugging them as any spandex-wearing tight-ass superhero. We can all collect and act up against failing politics... because it is our right to demand the mitigation of climate change in many, many decisions and derisions from our governments.

The fun part is that not everything needs to go to court. Governments know about this case, and don't like rulings against them, so they will (or should) act accordingly and change their policies.

But you need to ask for it.

A good point to take from this case : Unless you have a "personal interest" in the thing you are asking, your request may be deemed inadmissable. That is a technicality that calls for some creativity on how you formulate your request. Beyond that, democratic governments should give your request full consideration, rather than as a civilian's literate fart.

Copyright 2024 Kai Robinson, released under a liberal CC-BY SA 4 license.

Description

Europe once again showed the way. In a shattering victory the European Court on Human Rights ruled that climate change is an assault to human rights, notably the Right to Life and the Right to Respect for Private and Family Life.

The Court found that the Swiss Confederation had failed to comply with its duties (“positive obligations”) under the Convention concerning climate change. Yep, a country cannot be a bystander, and it cannot say that "it tried its best". It needs to active and achieve results. (That last bit is a new idea for politics, that's why judges need to remind them with overruling force.)

Climate concerns are now even more strongly enshrined in international law, which overrules the local squabbles of the laws in (fill in your country). In other words, you can demand action from your government and they shall have to consider that more important than politics, past decisions in national courts and even your country's Supreme Court. So this is just the beginning of a long series of government corrections.

This is what the superheroes of climate change look like... and I feel just as much like hugging them as any spandex-wearing tight-ass superhero. We can all collect and act up against failing politics... because it is our right to demand the mitigation of climate change in many, many decisions and derisions from our governments.

The fun part is that not everything needs to go to court. Governments know about this case, and don't like rulings against them, so they will (or should) act accordingly and change their policies.

But you need to ask for it.

A good point to take from this case : Unless you have a "personal interest" in the thing you are asking, your request may be deemed inadmissable. That is a technicality that calls for some creativity on how you formulate your request. Beyond that, democratic governments should give your request full consideration, rather than as a civilian's literate fart.

Copyright 2024 Kai Robinson, released under a liberal CC-BY SA 4 license.