Human rights v. Insufficient climate action: The Urgenda case

Published date01 June 2019
DOI10.1177/0924051919844375
Date01 June 2019
Subject MatterColumn
Column
Human rights v. Insufficient
climate action: The Urgenda case
Ingrid Leijten
Assistant Professor, Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, Leiden University Faculty of Law,
the Netherlands
Abstract
Climate change is a human rights issue, but what exactly can courts require States to do in this
regard? This contribution discusses the Dutch Urgenda case, in which the Court of Appeals
recently found a violation of Articles 2 (right to life) and 8 (right to respect for private and family
life) of the European Convention on Human Rights and ordered the State to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions by 25% by 2020. Looking at the case law of the European Court of Human Rights on
environmental issues, as well as the nature of positive obligations, it appears that Urgenda involves a
more abstract situation and a more precise positive obligation than is usually the case in human
rights adjudication. Because ex post facto complaints are no solution, and in light of the growing
number of Urgenda-like cases pending before (international) courts, efforts need to be made to
ensure that human rights ‘fit’ climate change cases and courts can provide effective protection in
this regard.
Keywords
Human Rights, climate action, positiv e obligations, Urgenda, European Conven tion on Human
Rights
Climate change is a human rights issue. Deterioration of the environment can have an enormous
impact on rights to a healthy environment, to private life, to adequate housing, and so on, but also
form a serious threat to the right to life.
1
Yet while the link between the environment and human
rights is indisputable, the precise human rights obligations of States to mitigate climate change and
Corresponding author:
Ingrid Leijten, Assistant Professor, Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, Leiden University Faculty of Law,
the Netherlands.
E-mail: a.e.m.leijten@law.leidenuniv.nl
1. See, UN Human Rights Committee General Comment No. 36 (2018) on Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, on the right to life, para 62.
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights
2019, Vol. 37(2) 112–118
ªThe Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0924051919844375
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