Children are also taking part in global marches and conferences to raise calls for more decisive action on climate change. Photo: Portal.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, made up of 18 independent experts, reaffirmed this Monday for the first time that all children have the right to a clean and healthy environment, which means it is a duty of states to cooperate deal with phenomena such as pollution and climate change.
In a context in which the lawsuits of young people against the authorities over climate problems are multiplying, the UN committee published an analysis of an important international treaty and pointed out that this guarantees minors the right to a healthy environment.
This means, the experts emphasized, that countries have a duty to tackle problems such as pollution or climate change.
“States must guarantee a clean, healthy and sustainable environment to respect, protect and fulfill the rights of children,” the committee said, after which “environmental degradation, including the consequences of the climate crisis, impairs the enjoyment of these rights.” .
The analysis comes two weeks after a judge in Montana, United States, ruled in favor of young people who accused their state of violating their constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment by working with the energy industry. fossils.
In Colombia, too, the judiciary decided in favor of the young people who asked their government to denounce the deforestation. And in Germany there were similar processes.
The document, released by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, could be a powerful tool for young people seeking climate justice, its President Ann Skelton told AFP, stressing its legal importance.
“Children can use this tool to encourage states to do what needs to be done and ultimately hold them accountable in court,” she commented.
For the UN committee, “the scale and scope of the triple planetary crisis (climate urgency, biodiversity collapse and pervasive pollution) pose an urgent and systemic threat to children’s rights on a global scale.”
The experts released their conclusions after consulting governments, civil society and thousands of minors.
More than 16,000 children in 121 countries gave feedback.
(With information from AFP)