Belgium accused of human rights breach for not tackling PFAS

Lawyers have filed a complaint against Belgium over its failure to protect its citizens’ from the significant health risks of forever chemicals.

ClientEarth has filed a human rights complaint with the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR). Belgium has the highest levels of forever chemicals (PFAS) of any European country.

“Not only is there contamination for a long time, but we noticed that authorities have had information about this contamination for years, if not decades, and that very little has been done,” says Hélène Duguy, environmental lawyer at ClientEarth.

The NGO ClientEarth has a strong track record of filing legal procedures against governments and companies on environmental issues. This is the first time they’ve addressed the ECSR, a Council of Europe’s monitoring body that judges whether member states are respecting the European Social Charter. “We chose it because we know that this committee has a very big enforcement power,” Duguy tells Euronews Earth.

Belgium: The major European PFAS hotspot