This database contains domestic, regional and international case-law related to human rights and climate change (work on completing the database is in progress). Click on an entry to see more information about a given case, including summaries, commentary, and links to further information.
Youth v. Government of Mexico
Summary: On 5 December 2019, the plaintiffs filed for protection against several authorities and acts. Notably, they claimed that the…
Woodpecker et al. v. South Korea (‘Baby Climate Litigation’)
Summary: In June 2022, a climate case was filed in South Korea by sixty-two babies and children under the age…
Women from Huasco & Others v. Government of Chile & Ministries of Energy, Environment and Health
Summary: On 25 November 2021, a group of women from the city of Huasco, alongside Doris Zamorano, a member of…
Waratah Coal Pty Ltd v. Youth Verdict Ltd & Ors
Summary: The case concerns the applications by Waratah Coal Pty Ltd. (WC) for a ‘mining license’ and an ‘environmental authority’…
Violations of Human Rights by Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and China due to Coal Fired plants in BiH
Summary: On 17 March 2021, two UN Special Rapporteurs, Marcos A. Orellana (Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights…
Verein KlimaSeniorinnen et al. v. Switzerland
Summary: In 2016, the Senior Women for Climate Protection Switzerland (German: ‘Verein KlimaSeniorinnen’), a Swiss organisation, brought proceedings concerning the…
Urgenda Foundation v. the Netherlands
Summary: This case, brought in 2013 by the Urgenda foundation and hundreds of Dutch citizens against the Netherlands, has become…
Urgence Maisons Fissurées Sarthe et al. v. France
Summary: On 7 April 2025, a group of five individuals litigants and nine civil society organisations presented a request for…
Uniterre et al. v. Swiss Department of the Environment (Swiss Farmers Case)
Summary: On 5 March 2024, a group of nine individual Swiss farmers, along with 5 associations representing farming-related interests, submitted…
Tsama William & 47 Ors v. Uganda
Summary: The case was initiated following multiple landslides that occurred in December 2019 in the Bududa district in Eastern Uganda,…
Tristan Runge et al. v. Sachsen
Summary: This case is one of ten separate constitutional complaints and one subsidiary popular complaint supported by the NGO Deutsche…
Thomas & De Freitas v. Guyana
Summary: On 21 May 2021, two Guayanese citizens filed a case in the domestic courts of Guayana, alleging that their…
The Prosecutor v. Bolsonaro
Summary: On 12 October 2021, the Austrian NGO AllRise, which advocates for interests linked with the environment, democracy, and the…
The Norwegian Grandparents’ Climate Campaign and Others v. Norway
Summary: This case was filed on 26 March 2021 by The Norwegian Grandparents’ Climate Campaign (or Besteforeldrenes klimaaksjon, see the…
The IACtHR’s 2017 Advisory Opinion on the Right to a Healthy Environment
Summary: In this advisory opinion, requested by Colombia, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights recognized that the right to a…
Thalita Silva e Silva and Others v. Minister of Environment et al.
Summary: This case was brought before the 14th Federal Civil Court of Sao Paulo by six youths as a popular…
Statnett SF et al. v. Sør-Fosen sijte et al.
Summary: In this judgment of 11 October 2021, the Supreme Court of Norway found that the construction of two wind…
State Defense Council vs. Quiborax S.A.
Summary: On 2 July 2024, a complaint was filed by the public prosecutor of Antofagasta, representing the State of Chile,…
Stasiak, Górska, Nowakowski and others v. Poland
Summary: In June 2021, the NGO ClientEarth announced that it was supporting five Polish citizens in bringing actions against the…
South African ‘Deadly Air Case’
Summary: This case concerns toxic air pollution in the Mpumalanga Highveld, which is home to a dozen coal-fired power plants,…
Soubeste and 4 other applications v. Austria and 11 other States
Summary: On 21 June 2022, it was reported that an application had been filed at the European Court of Human…
Smith v. Fonterra
Summary:This case was brought by Michael John Smith (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu), who is the climate change spokesperson for a Māori…
Smith v. Attorney-General
Summary: In March 2022, a prominent Māori landowner and advocate for tribal climate concerns took a significant step by bringing…
Smith v. Attorney General
Summary: This case was filed in 2022 and concerns the same plaintiff as the Smith v. Fonterra corporate responsibility case….
Sheila Watt-Cloutier et al. v. the United States of America
Summary: Filed in 2005 by members of the Inuit people living in Canada, this application concerned the climate change-related responsibility…
Sheikh Asim Farooq v. Federation of Pakistan etc.
Summary: In Pakistan, civil society members have taken legal action against multiple government departments, including the Planning and Development Department,…
Sharma and Others v. Minister for the Environment
Summary: In Sharma and Others v. Minister for the Environment, issued on 27 May 2021 by the Federal Court of…
Senior Citizens v. Korea
Summary: In June 2024, a group of 123 older South Korean citizens brought suit against their government before South Korea’s…
Segovia et al. v. Climate Change Commission
Summary: In 2017, a group of petitioners, including Children of the Future, filed a complaint with the Supreme Court of…
São Paulo State Public Defender’s Office v. São Paulo State Land Institute Foundation (ITESP) et al.
Summary: On 31 March 2014, the São Paulo State Public Defender’s Office brought a “Public Civil Action” against the São…
Sagoonick et al. v. State of Alaska II
Summary: On 22 May 2024, a group of young people supported by the NGO ‘Our Children’s Trust’ filed suit against…
Sagoonick et al. v. State of Alaska I
Summary: In 2017, sixteen children and young people — including some who were members of Alaskan Indigenous peoples — filed…
Sacchi et al. v. Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany & Turkey
Summary: On 23 September 2019, 16 children, among them teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, filed a petition before the Committee…
Riddhima Pandey v. Union of India and Others
Summary: The petitioner, Riddhima Pandey, a 9-year old girl residing in the Indian State of Uttarakhand, approached the National Green…
Reynolds and Others v. Florida
Summary: In this case, eight young people asserted that the “deliberate indifference” of the US state of Florida, its Governor…
Residents of Omkoi v Expert Committee on EIA Consideration et al.
Summary: On 4 April 2022, members of Kabeudin village, an Indigenous Karen community in Omkoi district, Chiang Mai province, Thailand, filed…
R (on the application of Friends of the Earth Ltd and others) v Heathrow Airport Ltd
Summary: On 26 June 2018, the UK Secretary of State for Transport adopted the Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS), which…
R (Friends of the Earth Ltd, Kevin Jordan and Doug Paulley) v. Secretary of State for Environment, Road & Rural Affairs
Summary: On 17 October 2023, the reportedly first-ever adaptation case in the United Kingdom was brought against the government before…
PUSH Sweden, Nature and Youth Sweden and Others v. Government of Sweden (Magnolia Case)
Summary: In June 2016, the Swedish government approved the request from state-owned energy company Vattenfall to sell its lignite assets…
PSB et. al. v. Brazil (Amazon deforestation)
Summary: On 11 November 2020, seven political parties with representation in Brazil’s National Congress brought an action against the Brazilian…
Summary: On 5 June 2020, four Brazilian political parties (Partido Socialista Brasileiro (PSB), Partido Socialismo e Liberdade, Partido dos Trabalhadores…
Plan B. Earth and Others v. the United Kingdom
Summary: On 11 July 2022, an application against the United Kingdom was filed before the European Court of Human Rights…
Pirá Paraná Indigenous Council and Another v. Ministry of Environment and Others (Pirá Paraná Case)
Summary: On July 15th, 2022, the Pirá Paraná Indigenous Council, in collaboration with the Association of Indigenous Traditional Authorities of…
Petition of Children of Cité Soleil and SAKALA
Summary: On 4 February 2021, six children of Cité Soleil, Haiti and a community center established to provide safe harbor…
Padam Bahadur Shrestha v. Office of Prime Minister and Others
Summary: The petitioner, Padam Bahadur Shrestha, had applied to the concerned authorities in Nepal to enact a separate law on…
Pabai Pabai & Another v. Australia (Torres Strait Islander case)
Summary: In a case modelled on the Dutch Urgenda case, a group of indigenous Torres Strait Islanders living on islands…
Our Children’s Trust with 15 Juliana Plaintiffs v. The United States of America
Summary: On 23 September 2025, the NGO Our Children’s Trust announced that it had filed a petition before the Inter-American…
Otis Hoffman et al. v. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Summary: This case is one of ten separate constitutional complaints and one subsidiary popular complaint supported by the NGO Deutsche…
Okpabi and Others v. Royal Dutch Shell and Others
Summary: In October and December 2015, the Ogale and Bille Nigerian communities filed parallel complaints against the UK company Royal…
Notre Affaire à Tous and Others v. Total
Summary: Along with 13 municipalities and four other NGOs, the French environmental organization Notre Affaire à Tous requested the oil…
Notre Affaire à Tous and Others v. France (‘L’affaire du siècle’)
Summary: The L’affaire du siècle (French for “affair of the century”) is a French climate justice campaign initiated by four…
Notre Affaire à Tous and Kimbé Rèd F.W.I. v. France
Summary:On 10 December 2025, the NGO Notre Affaire à Tous announced a new collective complaint filed before the European Committee…
Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA v. Norway
Summary: In a case before the EFTA Court concerning the EU’s emissions trading scheme, referred by the Oslo District Court…
Navahine F., a Minor v. Dept. of Transportation of Hawai’i et al.
Summary: In January 2022, fourteen young people filed suit against the Department of Transportation of the US state of Hawai’i…
Ministério Público Federal v. de Rezende
Summary: This case concerns the responsibility of an individual (a farmer in the Amazonia region of Brazil) for deforestation and…
Min-A Park v. South Korea
Summary: In July 2023, a fourth constitutional mitigation case was filed before the South Korean Constitutional Court. This case was…
Milieudefensie and others v. Royal Dutch Shell PLC
Summary: This case was brought as a class action tort suit by a group of NGOs, as well as more…
Mexican Center for Environmental Law v Mexico
Summary: This case revolves around the 2020 amendments to Mexico’s General Law on Climate Change, specifically the termination of the…
Mendoza Bohórquez and Librada Niño de Mendoza v. Colombia
Summary: In 2021, this case was brought against several Colombian government agencies by two peasants from Saravena (Arauca), José Noé…
Mbabazi and Others v. The Attorney General of Uganda and Others
Summary: This case was brought by a group of four young people, along with an NGO, alleging that the government…
Müllner v. Austria
Summary: On 25 March 2021, an application was filed before the European Court of Human Rights concerning the impact of…
Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community v. Nicaragua
Summary: The Awas Tingni community, an indigenous community of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, had no real property title deed…
Matteo Feind et al. v. Niedersachsen
Summary: This case is one of ten separate constitutional complaints and one subsidiary popular complaint supported by the NGO Deutsche…
Mathur et al. v. HM the Queen in Right of Ontario
Summary: On 25 November 2019, seven Canadian young people and the NGO Ecojustice brought a case against the State of…
Marlene Lemme et al. v. Bayern
Summary: This case is one of ten separate constitutional complaints and one subsidiary popular complaint supported by the NGO Deutsche…
Maria Khan et al. v. Federation of Pakistan et al.
SummaryFive people identifying themselves as women filed a writ petition, under Article 199 of the Constitution of Pakistan, against the…
Luca Salis et al. v. Sachsen-Anhalt
Summary:This constitutional complaint was brought by three young people against the German State (“Bundesland”) of Sachsen-Anhalt in the wake of…
Lighthiser v. Trump
Summary: On 29 May 2025, a case was filed on behalf of 22 youth plaintiffs from five US states (Montana,…
Lho’imggin et al. v. Canada
Summary: This case was brought by two houses of the Wet’suwet’en indigenous group against Canada on 10 February 2020. The…
Les Amis de la Terre, Survie v. Total SA
Summary: Total S.A. is a French energy company with oil projects in Uganda and Tanzania. According to the French “loi…
Leonie Frank et al. v. Saarland
Summary:This case is one of ten separate constitutional complaints and one subsidiary popular complaint supported by the NGO Deutsche Umwelthilfe…
Leghari v. Pakistan
Summary: In Leghari v. Pakistan, Asghar Leghari, whose family owns a farm in the Punjab province of Pakistan, claimed that…
Legal Advice Centre T/A Kituo cha Sheria & Anor v. Attorney General and 7 Others (Iten ELC Petition No. 007 of 2022)
Summary: In 2022, a case was filed in Kenya on behalf of members of indigenous Ilchamus and Tugen communities living…
Lausanne Action Climate v. Switzerland
Summary: On 5 November 2021, four climate activists submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights challenging the…
Laboratório do Observatório do Clima v. Minister of Environment and Brazil
Facts of the case: This is a class action suit brought before the 7th Federal Environmental and Agrarian Court of…
Korean Biomass Plaintiffs v. South Korea
Summary: On September 28, 2020, a group of solar developers in Seoul, South Korea filed a complaint against the South…
Klimatická žaloba ČR and others v. Czechia
Summary: This case was brought by a group of applicants, named in the brief as the climate action NGO Klimatická…
Kang et al. v KSURE and KEXIM
Summary: In March 2022, four individuals, including one Korean national and three Australian nationals from the indigenous community of the…
Juliana et al. v. USA et al.
Summary: On 12 August 2015, the Juliana v. the United States case was filed in the U.S. District Court for…
Jasansky and Others v. Austria
Summary: On 10 November 2023, it was reported that a climate-related application had been filed with the European Court of…
Jannis Krüssmann et al. v. Nordrhein-Westfalen (NWR)
Summary:This case is one of ten separate constitutional complaints and one subsidiary popular complaint supported by the NGO Deutsche Umwelthilfe…
Ioane Teitiota v. New Zealand
Summary: The applicant submitted that New Zealand had violated his right to life under the ICCPR by removing him to…
Interim Order against Nepali Fiscal Policy
Summary: On 18 June 2021 the Supreme Court of Nepal issued an interim order requiring the government not to implement…
Institute of Amazonian Studies (IEA) v Brazil
Summary: The IEA v. Brazil case centres on the severe deforestation crisis in the Brazilian Amazon, a major global climate…
Inhabitants of La Oroya v Peru
Summary: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) ruled on 27 November 2023 that Peru is accountable for violating various…
Summary: This case was brought by thirteen children, youth, and members of vulnerable groups from different parts of Indonesia, all…
In Re Tax Benefits for Aviation
Summary: The applicant, a consumer utilising both rail and air services, applied for relief, citing a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis…
ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change
Summary: On 29 March 2023, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resultion requesting an advisory opinion from the…
I.L. v. Italian Ministry of the Interior and Attorney General at the Court of Appeal of Ancona
Summary: In the case of I.L. v. Italian Ministry of the Interior and the Attorney General at the Court of…
Humane Being v. the United Kingdom
Summary: On 26 July 2022, the NGO Humane Being submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights arguing…
Herrera Carrion et al. v Ministry of the Environment et al. (“Caso Mecheros”)
Summary: The Caso Mecheros ruling, issued by the Provincial Court of Justice of Sucumbíos in 2021, revolved around nine girls…
Held and Others v. Montana
Summary: In Held and Others, sixteen young plaintiffs aged between two and eighteen brought a case against the U.S. state…
Hahn et al. v APR Energy S.R.L.
Summary: The legal action centred on the construction and operation of Matheu II and Matheu III, thermoelectric power plants in…
Greenpeace Spain et al. v. Spain
Summary: In 2020, three environmental NGOs (Greenpeace, Ecologistas en Acción and Oxfam Intermón) challenged the level of ambition of the…
Greenpeace Southeast Asia and others v. the Carbon Majors
Summary: This case was brought before the Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights (CHR) by 12 organisations and 20 individuals, as…
Greenpeace Nordic and Others v. Norway
Summary: This case was the fourth climate change case brought to the European Court of Human Rights. It was brought…
Greenpeace Nordic and Nature & Youth v. Energy Ministry (North Sea Fields Case)
Summary: This case originated in a challenge to a series of administrative decisions by the Norwegian government granting corporations leave…
Greenpeace Netherlands v. State of the Netherlands (KLM)
Summary: During the Covid-19 pandemic, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines struggled with serious financial difficulties. To support the airline during the…
Greenpeace Netherlands v. State of the Netherlands (Bonaire)
Summary: On 11 May 2023, Greenpeace and seven residents of the Caribbean island of Bonaire sent a pre-litigation letter (Dutch:…
Greenpeace Mexico v. Ministry of Energy and Others (on the National Electric System policies)
Summary: In Spring of 2020 the Government of Mexico issued the following two policies: The Agreement of the National Centre…
The database is correct to the best of our knowledge, and is regularly updated. Errors and omissions may, however, occur.