Portugal The Man Young

[Cora Hickel]

On September 2, 2020, six Portuguese youth filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights against 33 countries. The complaint alleges that the respondents have violated human rights by failing to take sufficient action on climate change, and seeks an order requiring them to take more ambitious action.

The complaint relies on Articles 2, 8, and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protect the right to life, right to privacy, and right to not experience discrimination. The complainants claim that their right to life is threatened by the effects of climate change in Portugal such as forest fires; that their right to privacy includes their physical and mental wellbeing, which is threatened by heatwaves that force them to spend more time indoors; and that as young people, they stand to experience the worst effects of climate change.

The case is brought against the Member States of the Council of Europe (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden) as well as Norway, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. The complainants allege that the respondents have fallen short of their human rights obligations by failing to agree to emissions reductions that will keep temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as envisioned by the Paris Agreement.

On November 30, 2020, The European Court of Human Rights fast-tracked and communicated the case to 33 defendant countries, requiring them to respond by the end of February 2021. According to the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), who are supporting the case, only a tiny minority of cases before the Court are fast-tracked and communicated.

On February 4, 2021, the Court rejected a motion by the defendant governments asking the Court to overturn its fast-tracking decision. The governments had asked the court to overturn priority treatment of the case and to hear arguments only on the admissibility of the case. The Court sent a letter to the parties rejecting these motions and gave the defendants until May 27, 2021 to submit a defense on both admissibility and the merits of the case.

The Court also granted until May 6, 2021 third party interventions. Among other seven third-party intervention, on May 5, 2021, Amnesty International intervened in the case and submitted her written observations to the European Court of Human Rights. The submission supports the claimants' position, providing legal arguments to the Court to show that international law requires states to not harm, and to not allow companies within their jurisdiction to harm, the human rights of people outside their borders.

On June 30, 2022, the Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights relinquished jurisdiction in favor of the Grand Chamber. The case is now going to be examined by the ECtHR's Grand Chamber of 17 judges on account of the fact that the case raises a serious question affecting the interpretation of the Convention (Art 30 ECHR). The Court held a hearing in September 2023.

On April 9, 2024, the European Court declared the application inadmissible. With respect to extraterritorial jurisdiction, the Court found no grounds to expand the judicial application as requested by the applicants. Territorial jurisdiction was therefore only established in respect of Portugal, and the complaint was declared inadmissible against other respondent States. Nonetheless, because the applicants had failed to exhaust domestic remedies in Portugal, the complaint against Portugal was also deemed inadmissible.

2024 Sabin Center for Climate Change LawThe materials on this website are intended to provide a general summary of the law and do not constitute legal advice. You should consult with counsel to determine applicable legal requirements in a specific fact situation.

Six young people from Portugal will present a landmark case before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) tomorrow, 27 September, arguing that countries are breaching their human rights by failing to do enough to protect them from climate change.

If they are successful, the 27 EU member states, as well the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Russia and Turkey, could be legally required to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Amnesty International is among the groups which filed a written submission to the court, arguing that governments are obligated to protect human rights internationally through their climate policies.

Like so many others around the world, the applicants are already directly experiencing health impacts from climate change as increasing heat extremes have restricted their ability to spend time outdoors, exercise, sleep and concentrate properly. Some also suffer from conditions like asthma, worsened by lower air quality caused by extreme heat, forest fires and emissions from burning fossil fuels.

Cludia is from Leiria, about 120km north of Lisbon, and lives with her brother Martim and sister Mariana, who are also involved in the case. She works as a nurse in a local hospital so is acutely aware of the threat that the escalation of extreme heat events poses to human health.

Martim studies at a science and technology school in Leiria. Smoke from forest fires in 2017 caused the school to close and he was horrified at the extent of the destruction close to his home. Martim says his generation must do everything it can to ensure governments safeguard their rights and their futures.

Catarina also lives in Leiria and says climate change is making the region a more hostile place to live. The heat extremes which Portugal has experienced in recent years have significantly interfered with her ability to exercise outdoors and to sleep properly. She worries about the future of the family that she hopes to have one day.

A decision could be made within a few months. As rulings of the ECtHR are binding to the states concerned, it could influence other cases before domestic courts in Europe, and strengthen future climate cases brought at a national level.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When Lisbon, Portugal, was announced in 2019 as the destination for the 17th World Youth Day, few could have imagined how relevant the message of Pope Francis' trip to the Portuguese capital would be for the life of the entire church.

Just two months before Pope Francis opens the Synod of Bishops dedicated to discussing how to create a more listening church, the international gathering of young people -- expected to bring together a million people in the Portuguese capital -- aims to be a similarly inclusive place of encounter and exchange ahead of the synodal gathering at the Vatican in October.

The pope described the type of exchange he hopes participants at WYD will have when he spoke with young people traveling to WYD from Argentina July 16. He encouraged them to live WYD intensely and be "enriched by a great diversity of faces, cultures, experiences and different expressions of our faith." The logo for World Youth Day 2023 depicts a cross, rosary and a profile of Mary in the colors of the Portuguese flag. It was presented at the Vatican Oct. 16, 2020. The Vatican announced Pope Francis will be in Portugal Aug. 2-6 and would go to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima Aug. 5. (CNS photo/courtesy Fundao JMJ Lisboa 2023)

And in his message for this year's World Youth Day published in August 2022, the pope told young people: "now is the time to set out in haste toward concrete encounters, toward genuine acceptance of those different from ourselves."

Seeking to create true diversity at World Youth Day in order to foster those encounters has been a focus of Cardinal-designate Amrico Aguiar, auxiliary bishop of Lisbon and the chief organizer of WYD 2023. For a pope striving to shift the church's focus toward evangelization, his decision to elevate the auxiliary bishop to a cardinal drew scrutiny by some after he said the aim of WYD is "not to convert young people to Christ" in a July 6 interview with Portuguese news agency RTP.

The bishop clarified that he was speaking against proselytism and not evangelization. The pope's decision to give the 49-year-old auxiliary bishop a red hat Sept. 30 could be an indication of a papal seal of approval of Bishop Aguiar's efforts to make WYD an inviting space where evangelization can occur through genuine encounter.

At the first World Youth Day since the publication of Pope Francis' encyclical "Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship" in 2020, organizers have made efforts to make this year's WYD include an explicitly interreligious dimension. WYD participants will have the opportunity to visit places of worship of other religions, such as a mosque, synagogue and Hindu temple during the weeklong gathering.

"Certainly there will be a strong Catholic presence, but there is another presence," he said, referring to WYD participants of other religions. Pope Francis makes the sign of the cross in front of a Marian statue after consecrating the world and, in particular, Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary during a Lenten penance service in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican March 25, 2022. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

"The Catholic identity of this event is not less because of this, but it's even stronger, because it's as Jesus (said): 'whoever is not against us is for us,'" he said, referencing a passage from St. Matthew's Gospel. "We welcome those who are with us not only in the faith, but in life."

Cardinal Clemente highlighted the church's precedent of engaging with young people of other religions, recalling St. John Paul II's address to young Muslims in Morocco in 1985 in which he called on all young people to engage in dialogue and "to love others, without any limit of nation, race or religion."

And ahead of the first international edition of World Youth Day in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1987, St. John Paul II made no religious distinction when he called on "all young men and women throughout the world" to celebrate World Youth Day "with particular intensity and hope."

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