For binding
climate protection
Twelve children are taking their case to the Constitutional Court and are pushing the limits of the Austrian rule of law.
Smilla is protesting. Levi is playing sports. Wilhelmina is having someone read to her. They are between 5 and 16 years old and have interests just like any other children. But they share something that really shouldn’t exist: they all spend part of their childhood worrying about their future. In February 2023, twelve children and adolescents took their case to the Constitutional Court to enforce something enshrined in the Austrian Constitution: their right to protection, to the best possible development, and to the safeguarding of their interests.
The Constitutional Court rejected the case twice on formal grounds — without ever engaging with the substance of the arguments. What remains is not a ruling. It is a question that the Austrian legal system could not answer: If children hold special constitutional rights but have no way of enforcing them — are those rights really anything more than the paper they are written on?
When the future of entire generations is at stake and constitutional rights remain empty words, the rule of law fails precisely where it is needed most.
Children's Rights in Court
In February 2023, twelve children and young people aged five to sixteen filed an individual application with the Constitutional Court. Their goal: to have provisions of the Austrian Climate Protection Act struck down as inadequate, because the Act violates the children's rights enshrined in the Constitution — in particular the right to protection, to the best possible development, and to having their interests safeguarded under the principle of intergenerational equity.
"Children have a right to protection from the consequences of the climate crisis."
- Michaela Krömer
Since the end of 2020, the Climate Protection Act has set no binding greenhouse gas reduction targets, imposes no obligations to take action, and is incapable of putting Austria on a path consistent with the Paris climate goals. Those most affected by this failure are the very people who will have to live with the consequences the longest. Represented by attorney Michaela Krömer and supported by CLAW and Fridays For Future Austria, the plaintiffs set out to claim what the Constitution promises them.
No effective Climate Protection Act
no binding reduction targets
Intergenerational justice exists only on paper
lack of legal protection for children
Legal arguments
The plaintiffs are challenging the Climate Protection Act by way of an individual application under Article 140 B-VG, filed with the support of Fridays For Future Austria and CLAW. They argue that the Act violates their constitutionally guaranteed rights. In particular their right to have their best interests safeguarded and their right to intergenerational equity under Article 1 of the Federal Constitutional Act on the Rights of Children.
The climate crisis directly endangers these rights, since its consequences place an enormous physical and psychological burden on children in particular. The current Climate Protection Act, which remains in force but is entirely without effect, does not provide sufficient protection for children's rights. The State is therefore failing to meet its obligation to protect children and this is the heart of what the Generations Case seeks to establish.
- First Filing
February 2023: Twelve children and young people file the individual application with the Constitutional Court, represented by Michaela Krömer
- First Rejection
June 2023: The Constitutional Court rejects the case on formal grounds, without engaging with the substantive argumentss
- Second Filing
November 2023: Krömer files a revised application on the International Day of the Rights of the Child.
- Second Rejection
June 2024: The Constitutional Court again rejects the case on formal grounds — once more without any substantive review. - What remains
The question of how children can enforce their constitutional rights against inadequate climate action remains unanswered.
Our future is being decided today
Many of the plaintiffs joined climate protests. Some were active in Fridays For Future, others signed petitions, asked their parents difficult questions, debated with their teachers. They tried to take part using the means available to children and young people. But where the decisions about their future are actually made in a democracy, in elections and in parliament, they have no voice.
Rather than watch passively as their future was dismantled, they went to the Constitutional Court. For them, one thing was clear:
"Our future is being decided today — but not without us."
What remains when the Court stays silent
Rejected twice, twice without any substantive engagement — at first glance, this looks like a defeat. But this very double rejection brings something into view that would otherwise have remained invisible: In Austria, there is no effective legal pathway to have inadequate climate policy reviewed in court.
Other supreme courts have likewise dismissed climate cases but at least explained why the particular legal remedy was inadmissible and what criteria a potentially successful case would have to meet.
The two rejections by the Constitutional Court do neither. They leave open what formal and substantive requirements a case would need to fulfil in order to be admissible. Children in Austria have strong rights, but almost no way to enforce them. This gap does not concern only children. It concerns everyone whose fundamental rights are violated by the State's inaction on climate.
"Once again, this decision fails to explain how intergenerational equity can be enforced in the context of the climate crisis. With this, there is a risk that our legal system loses touch with present-day reality."
Michaela Krömer on the second rejection, June 2024
Get involved
The future of an entire generation is at stake. While the climate crisis threatens the lives of our children and young people, their constitutional rights remain without effective protection. We will not stand by and watch as these rights are reduced to empty words. Now is the moment to act!
This is how you can help:
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