{"id":67578,"date":"2024-04-25T16:19:17","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T21:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=67578"},"modified":"2024-04-25T16:19:17","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T21:19:17","slug":"south-koreans-sue-government-over-climate-change-saying-policy-violates-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=67578","title":{"rendered":"South Koreans sue government over climate change, saying policy violates human rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
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South Koreans sue government over climate change, saying policy violates human rights<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Plaintiffs, lawyers and activists gather outside South Korea’s constitutional court in Seoul ahead of a public hearing for a climate lawsuit on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

SEOUL \u2014 As plaintiffs, lawyers and activists chanted slogans outside South Korea’s constitutional court on Tuesday, 17-month-old Woodpecker giggled, sending ripples of laughter through the crowd.<\/p>\n

Woodpecker is the nickname of Choi Heewoo, the youngest among more than 250 plaintiffs involved in\u00a0Woodpecker et. al. v. South Korea<\/a>, one of four petitions filed since 2020 that the court is considering together in a landmark case.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs argue that by not effectively tackling climate change, their government is violating its citizens’ human rights.<\/p>\n

While there are other cases in progress elsewhere, this is the first in Asia to have a public hearing and plaintiffs say that the court’s verdict, when it comes, is also likely to be the first in Asia.<\/p>\n

Woodpecker’s mom and legal representative Lee Donghyun made him a plaintiff while he was still in her womb. She says South Korea’s government is deferring the task of reducing carbon emissions to future administrations and younger generations.<\/p>\n

“The more we think this task can be delayed now, the bigger the burden our future generations will have,” she says. “I think it’s the same as passing on a debt to your children.”<\/p>\n

Environmentalists criticize carbon emission reduction goals<\/strong><\/p>\n

Plaintiffs argue that South Korea’s goal of reducing carbon emissions by 40% by 2030 compared to 2018 levels is insufficient \u2014 it will lead to disastrous climate change and violate their constitutional rights.<\/p>\n

South Korea’s human rights watchdog has filed an\u00a0opinion<\/a>\u00a0with the government, stating that climate change is a human rights issue, and that the government is therefore obligated to protect citizens from it.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n

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South Koreans sue government over climate change, saying policy violates human rights Plaintiffs, lawyers and activists gather outside South Korea’s constitutional court in Seoul ahead of a public hearing for a climate lawsuit on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. SEOUL \u2014 As plaintiffs, lawyers and activists chanted slogans outside South Korea’s constitutional court on Tuesday, 17-month-old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[34368,141,379,2190,6457,740],"class_list":["post-67578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-anthony-kuhn","tag-climate-change","tag-government","tag-national-public-radio","tag-npr","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67579,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67578\/revisions\/67579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}