In a landmark decision on April 9^th, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France ruled that the government of Switzerland had violated their citizens’ human rights by not taking sufficient action to address the climate crisis, a verdict that many legal observers say could influence other courts to look favorably on similar future lawsuits.

The case was brought by a group based in Switzerland called Senior Women for Climate Protection, 2,000 women ages 64 and up, who argued that inaction by the Swiss government put their health at risk during increasingly more frequent heat waves that climate science attributes to global warming.  Europe’s highest human rights court agreed, declaring that Switzerland had failed to meet its target to reduce carbon emissions, and must act to address that failure.

This is the first case where an international court has determined that governments are legally obligated to meet their carbon emission reduction goals under human rights law.  The European Court didn’t provide specific instructions on the policies to be implemented but left it to the Swiss government to comply following its democratic process.  Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Kiley Price, a reporter with the online publication Inside Climate News, who provides an overview of the significance of this case, covered in her recent article, “A Group of Women Took Switzerland to Court Over Climate Inaction—and Won.”