{"id":222098,"date":"2020-12-02T09:03:38","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T09:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=222098"},"modified":"2020-12-04T08:22:37","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T08:22:37","slug":"ehrc-youth-climate-case-could-see-courts-forcing-policy-on-nation-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=222098","title":{"rendered":"EHRC \u201cYouth Climate Case\u201d could see courts forcing policy on nation-states"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kit Knightly \u2013 Off-Guardian Dec 1, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The European Court of Human Rights is prepping to hear a civil case brought against the governments of 33 European nations by six teenage \u201cclimate activists\u201d.<\/p>\n

The six youth activists are allegedly crowd-funding<\/a> the campaign, but also have the backing of the Global Legal Action Network NGO<\/a>. Though the six teenagers are all Portuguese, the case is being brought against thirty-three different nations simultaneously \u2013 all 27 EU members, the UK, Russia, Norway, Turkey, Ukraine and Switzerland.<\/p>\n

To defend themselves the 33 countries will be asked to explain how their \u201clack of action\u201d on climate change doesn\u2019t<\/em> equate to a violation of the human rights of their citizens. If they lose, the countries in question will be legally forced to \u201ctake greater action\u201d on climate, or face penalties for missing lower carbon emissions goals etc.<\/p>\n

One of the kids, 12-year-old Andr\u00e9 Oliveira, is quoted in The Guardian<\/a> as saying [our emphasis]:<\/p>\n

It gives me lots of hope to know that the judges in the European court of human rights recognise the urgency of our case. But what I\u2019d like the most would be for European governments to immediately do what the scientists say is necessary<\/strong> to protect our future. Until they do this, we will keep on fighting with more determination than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story itself is nonsense of course. Twelve-year-olds do not talk like that. Plus the case originated over 3 years ago, when young Andr\u00e9 was only nine.<\/p>\n

Nine-year-old boys do not see footage of forest fires on the news and decide to sue the European Union. Even if the thought did occur to them, they wouldn\u2019t have the resources, knowledge or wherewithal to actually do anything about it. Not without some pretty all-encompassing adult supervision.<\/p>\n

This whole story has the Greta-like whiff of adults using children to mask their agenda. It\u2019s unsavoury, but that\u2019s not really the worst part. The worst part is what this case is aiming to achieve.<\/p>\n

Consider the precedents being set here. As the Guardian rightly points out, the ECHR is a standard-setting body, even if the final judgment in this particular case is largely ignored, or considered simply symbolic, it will still sit on the books as a precedent in several ways.<\/p>\n

Firstly, there\u2019s the precedent of over-ruling democracy. The governments of these 33 nations were all elected, they (notionally) answer to their electorate, not the EHRC. It\u2019s one thing to prosecute a nation or head of state for actually committing a crime, but bringing a civil case to dictate policy is quite another.<\/p>\n

Secondly, there\u2019s the question of state sovereignty. All of the plaintiffs are Portuguese, yet the case is seeking to alter the policy of 32 other nation-states as well. Neither these six Portuguese children, their British lawyers or the Strasbourg-based courts have the right to tell Hungary or Norway or Turkey how to run their country, certainly not when it involves going against the democratic will of the people.<\/p>\n

Finally, there\u2019s the tell-tale quote from young Andr\u00e9 \u2013 bolded above.<\/p>\n

what I\u2019d like the most would be for European governments to immediately do what the scientists say is necessary\u201d<\/p>\n

Granted these are just the words of a child, but he almost certainly was reading something an adult had written. And it\u2019s definitely the aim of the exercise. A government which has policy dictated by what scientists say is necessary<\/em>.<\/p>\n

NOT what is democratically mandated. NOT what is legally permitted. Not even what is morally correct.<\/p>\n

What the scientists say is necessary.<\/em><\/p>\n

Anybody paying attention to the way the world is being run in the wake of the Covid19 \u201cpandemic\u201d should find those words at least a little chilling.<\/p>\n

Can you spare $1.00 a month to support independent media<\/h3>\n

Unlike the Guardian we are NOT funded by Bill & Melinda Gates, or any other NGO or government. So a few coins in our jar to help us keep going are always appreciated.<\/p>\n

Patreon https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/offguardian<\/a><\/p>\n

Paypal https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/donate\/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=CKFB3MH8CGB9U<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Landmark legal case would seek to make EU nations \u201cdo what scientists say is necessary\u201d. Opening the way for a scientific dictatorship <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=222098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222099,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222098\/revisions\/222099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=222098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=222098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=222098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}