Today’s news / DK and 35 others into Court of Human Rights
Martim Duarte, Catarina Mota, Cláudia Duarte and Mariana Duarte. Four of the six Portuguese young people who have taken legal action against many states, including Denmark. They come from Leiria in western Portugal and have all experienced the consequences of fierce forest fires. - Photo: Marcelo Engenheiro/Free

DK and 35 others into Court of Human Rights

Thirty-two countries, including Denmark, are not doing enough in the fight to save the climate. At least not if you ask the six young Portuguese who will appear before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg Wednesday to fight for a future in which global warming does not exceed 1.5 degrees. The six are being represented by the non-profit organisation The Global Legal Action Network. “This case is driven by people. People from Denmark have also supported us in our crowdfunding. I think there will be 86 lawyers across the room against the six young people we represent,” says the organisation’s CEO, Gearóid Ó Cuinn. Marya Akhtar, Head of Legal Affairs at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, says the case special. “This is the first time that the European Court of Human Rights will have to consider whether human rights protect against climate change. This means that the judgment will look at whether the commitments made by Denmark and other states in the Paris Agreement in 2015 lead to human rights claims,” she says. /ritzau/