Victim Status of Individuals in Climate Change Litigation before the ECtHR

Abstract

The climate change applications currently pending before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) present substantial challenges to the status quo of the Strasbourg system, encompassing both merits and admissibility issues. Of particular concern is their compliance with the admissibility requirement outlined in Article 34 of the European Convention of Human Rights (echr), which stipulates that applicants must be victims of a violation of the Convention by a State to file a case before the Court. Given the diffuse nature of the harms stemming from climate change, identifying individuals as victims of its effects and, consequently, whose rights are allegedly infringed upon, becomes a complex task. Furthermore, establishing a direct causal link between the harm endured and the actions or omissions of a single State proves to be equally challenging. Therefore, the aim of this article is to scrutinize how this admissibility requirement might operate in the cases at hand. In particular, it argues that, albeit with some caveats, it is legally possible to consider some climate change applicants as both direct and potential victims, as per the definitions established by the case law of the ECtHR. Nevertheless, this solution could pose significant challenges to the legitimacy and efficiency of the Strasbourg system, which the Court will have to prevent when deciding these cases.