The National Environment Management Authority (“NEMA”) demolished the petitioner’s house after serving notice that his residential property was in a wetland. He filed a Constitutional Petition in the Constitutional Court maintaining that his rights over his property and his right to a hearing and to an appeal had been violated. He claimed that Sections 67, …Read more

The plaintiff Urgenda, a foundation committed to a more sustainable society, brought a claim on behalf of over 800 individuals against the defendant, the state of the Netherlands, regarding climate change. Specifically, the plaintiff asked the court to rule that it would be unlawful for the defendant not to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by …Read more

The governor of the Miyazaki Prefecture granted permission for a company that collects, transports, and disposes of industrial waste to establish an industrial waste treatment facility. When the company applied for permission, it submitted a document called the “Environmental Impact Survey Report,” which detailed the survey results regarding the impact of the establishment of the …Read more

The plaintiff brought the case to the First Instance Criminal Court of Lomas de Zamora [Juzgado de Garantias n° 3 de Lomas de Zamora] against three workers of the painting factory “MATRA” who presumably threw toxic substances in an area located in Esteban Echeverría, violating Law 24 051. The First Instance Criminal Court of Lomas de …Read more

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a non-governmental organization, filed a case against the Federal Republic of Nigeria alleging human rights violations as a result of the government’s failure to ensure adequate environmental protection in the Niger Delta due to oil spillage. SERAP alleged that decades of oil prospection and exploitation by private corporations …Read more

The plaintiff brought the case to the Civil and Commercial Court of Zarate – Campana [Juzgado en lo Civil y Comercial N° I de Zarate – Campana]  against the company Rutilex Hidrocarburos Argentinos S.A, located in Province of Buenos Aires, to be sentenced to carry out the necessary measures to cease its contaminating activities that …Read more

The plaintiff  filed a guarantee of protection of individual constitutional rights (amparo protection) in the terms of articles 41 and 43 of the National Constitution and law 25.675 with the Supreme Court of Justice against the National State, the province of Buenos Aires and the municipality of Lomas de Zamora to initiate the public work …Read more

In May 2007, the State of Panama, without community consultation, granted a concession for the construction of a hydroelectric dam within the traditional lands of an indigenous community, the Ngöbe. Although the construction of the dam was still in its initial stages at the time the petition was filed, the petitioner alleged that the work …Read more

The petitioners were pastoralists and communal landowners in the Baringo District in Rift Valley Province, Kenya. The petitioners alleged that the respondents (the Attorney-General, the Minister for Environmental and Natural Resources, the National Environment Management Authority, and the County Council of Baringo) were liable for violating their rights to life (under Section 71 of the …Read more

Residents of the Matanza-Riachulo river basin brought a class action against the National State, the Province of Buenos Aires, and the city of Buenos Aires, as well as a number of businesses, for injuries resulting from pollution of the area. A lengthy information collecting process began in 2006. The Supreme Court of Argentina found that …Read more