Seeing her house “covered in ashes” by one of the deadly 2017 fires in Portugal sparked a stir in Claudia Agostinho, who with five other young Portuguese people is attacking 32 states for climate inaction before the European Court of Human Rights ( ECHR).
“It was terribly scary,” remembers this 24-year-old nurse, who lives in the Leiria region (center) ravaged by these forest fires.
“It was this anxiety that pushed me to act,” continues the young woman. Like her co-plaintiffs, she believes that the heatwaves and forest fires that hit her country every year are the direct result of global warming.
“Justice has a lot of power so we wanted to make our voice heard in this way,” Sofia Oliveira told AFP, who wanted to “flee this world” after the “shock” of these fires which left more than 100 dead.
“We want our case to push governments to act,” insists the 18-year-old student who lives in the suburbs of Lisbon.
The complaint of six young Portuguese aged 11 to 24, which will be examined by the ECHR on September 27 in Strasbourg (eastern France), accuses 32 European states of not doing enough to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse.
The case is emblematic given the number of plaintiffs and states prosecuted.
“Young people have already filed complaints against climate change before other courts around the world but this is the first time before the ECHR and it is the first time that a case linked to the rights of young people has been heard,” explains to AFP Gerry Liston, lawyer for the British NGO Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) which represents them.
A victory would constitute a turning point because the requested judgment would be “legally binding”, continues Mr. Liston.
Initially, it was a volunteer lawyer from GLAN, Rita Mota, who suggested the idea of ??filing a complaint with her cousin Claudia Agostinho.
Who is joined in her approach by her brother Martim (20 years old), her sister Mariana (11 years old) and their neighbor Catarina Mota (no relation to Rita, saleswoman, 23 years old). Then by Sofia Oliveira and her brother André (15 years old) whose father is a friend of this same activist.
“They are completely normal young people. They were not recruited at all,” insists Rita Mota to AFP. “They were the ones who told me they hoped they could do something to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
It is not yet the time for school strikes and big youth climate marches.
At first things progress slowly. “The GLAN is a small organization. We had to do a crowdfunding campaign”, train young people to speak to journalists.
Over the years, they learn to defend their cause. The complaint was filed in 2020. “The fact that they are acting in a concrete and tangible way gives them, I believe, a less feeling of helplessness,” notes Ms. Mota.
“We want to demonstrate that solutions exist, that we can still change and that we must not give up,” says Sofia, proud that their fight is supported by Greta Thunberg or Leonardo Di Caprio.
“If our case is taken into account, there will be sanctions for governments that do not keep their promises. Because it is people’s lives that are at stake,” says his brother André.
The teenager has asthma and cannot play sports if it is too hot. “It’s getting worse and worse and we’re getting more and more scared.”
“It will become even worse for our children’s generation and we cannot allow it,” adds the high school student, explaining that he became aware of the climate crisis at a young age while talking to his parents, trained in biology.
Claudia, the oldest of the complainants, evokes her family’s attachment to a neglected rural world and its responsibility towards the children she wishes to give birth to.
“It is necessary to take measures to guarantee us the right to a healthy life, which is the most basic right of any human, this is all that we ask of those in power. This is the base,” she said.
20/09/2023 09:16:30 – Lisbon (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
