Members of various climate protection organisations denounce the government’s failure to respond to the climate crisis during a joint press conference for the first public hearing of the climate constitutional petition in front of the Constitutional Court in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the afternoon of 23 April. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 15 (Korea Bizwire) – A 12-year-old elementary school student will make her voice heard this week in one of South Korea’s most consequential legal battles over the government’s response to climate change.
Han Je-ah, a sixth grader from Seoul, will address the Constitutional Court in person on May 21 during the final hearing for a climate lawsuit she joined four years ago as part of a group of 62 children and infants.
“The Earth is where we will continue to live,” Han said in a recent interview with Yonhap News. “I thought that if the climate crisis continues like this, our right to happiness cannot be protected.”
Han will be one of several plaintiffs, including Kim Seo-kyoung, 22, who filed the lawsuit as a teenager in 2020, and Hwang In-chul, the climate and energy team leader at the civic group Green Korea United, who are expected to address the court directly.
“This final statement is the first and last time they can deliver their voices directly to the justices,” said Climate Media Hub, a group supporting the lawsuit. “They plan to testify in their own language, not complex legal terms, about why they had no choice but to initiate this lawsuit.”
Joining them as expert witnesses will be professor Park Deok-young of Yonsei University’s law school and former climate ambassador Yoo Yeon-chul. They are expected to weigh in on whether the government’s greenhouse gas reduction targets are appropriate and if they infringe on citizens’ constitutional rights.
The Constitutional Court plans to conclude the hearings following the testimony. Legal experts anticipate the court could reach a decision as early as September after the justices deliberate, in what would be a first for South Korea.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
