Colombian Youth Take Government to Court for Failing to Protect Their Future
Thomson Reuters Foundation/TwitterA group of Colombian youth has become the latest to take a government to court for failing to protect their future.
The 25 plaintiffs, ranging in age from seven to 26, “filed a lawsuit against the Colombian government on Monday, demanding it protect their right to a healthy environment, in what campaigners said was the first such action in Latin America,” Thomson Reuters reports.
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“The lawsuit, filed at a Bogotá court, alleges the government’s failure to stem rising deforestation in Colombia puts their future in jeopardy and violates their constitutional rights to a healthy environment, life, food and water,” the news agency writes.
While Bogotá-based rights group Dejusticia is proclaiming the case as a first, it’s unlikely to be the last. Similar legal challenges have been launched in Alaska and Washington states, and in Portugal, seeking pre-emptive remedy for the nearly incalculable intergenerational injustice implied by climate disruption.
Last year, a research team led by ex-NASA scientist James Hansen calculated that today’s children and teenagers face a US$535-trillion price tag—seven times the world’s annual GDP—to bring the climate back into balance.