Six young activists are due Wednesday at the European Court of Human Rights, where they're accusing 32 governments of violating their human rights for failing to adequately address climate change.
Siblings Sofia Oliveira, 18, and Andre Oliveira, 15, pose for a picture at the beach in Costa da Caparica, south of Lisbon, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023.Siblings Sofia Oliveira, 18, and Andre Oliveira, 15, pose for a picture at the beach in Costa da Caparica, south of Lisbon, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023.COSTA DA CAPARICA, Portugal — Sofia Oliveira was 12 years old when catastrophic wildfires in central Portugal killed more than 100 people in 2017.
The courts are increasingly seen by activists as a way of sidestepping politics and holding governments to account. Last month, in a case brought by young environmental activists, a judge in the U.S. state of Montana ruled that state agencies were violating their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment by allowing fossil fuel development.
The other four members of the Portuguese group — Catarina, Cláudia, Martim and Mariana — are siblings and cousins who live in the region of Leiria in central Portugal where summer wildfires are common. Among the specific impacts listed by the young Portuguese are being unable to sleep, concentrate, play outside or exercise during heat waves. One of their schools was closed temporarily when the air became unbreathable due to wildfire smoke. Some of the children have health conditions such as asthma that makes them more vulnerable to heat and air pollution.
Portugal's government, for example, agrees the state of the environment and human rights are connected but insists the government's"actions seek to meet its international obligations in this area" and cannot be faulted.Poland last month filed legal challenges aimed at annulling three of the European Union's main climate change policies.
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