http://dx.doi.org/10.59704/342ef4175aeeb0bc https://verfassungsblog.de/right-to-life-echr-pollution/ A New Step in the Greening of the Right to Life - The ECtHR Judgment on the Land of Fires Zirulia, Stefano eng 2025-02-20 electronic resource text/html ddc:342 Environmental Protection European Convention of Human Rights European Court of Human Rights Human Rights Right to Life Right to Private Life Human Rights Verfassungsblog Verfassungsblog--2366-7044 CC BY-SA 4.0 In Cannavacciuolo and Others v. Italy, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously found a violation of Article 2 ECHR on account of the State’s failure to protect the right to life of residents in an area of Southern Italy known as the “Land of Fires” (Terra dei Fuochi). This is the first judgment linking a violation of the right to life to the prolonged exposure to pollutants released into the environment. The decisive element for the applicability of the right to life has been a shift in the Court’s approach to the causal link requirement that triggers a violation of Article 2. The Cannavacciuolo judgment should therefore be seen as a turning point for climate and environmental justice.