Children and young people worldwide have been calling on governments to take action on the environmental crisis, one of the greatest threats to children’s rights globally.
In fact, 1.7 million children lose their lives every year as a result of avoidable environmental impacts. Millions more are being forced to leave their homes, missing out on school and suffering from disease.
From December 2021 – 2023, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child hosted a series of offline and online consultations and workshops with the global community, including specific consultations with children, to inform the General Comment on Children’s Rights and the Environment with a Special Focus on Climate Change (General Comment No. 26).
The General Comment No.26 is an authoritative guidance on how children’s rights are impacted by the environmental crisis and what governments must do to uphold these rights to ensure that children live in a clean, healthy and sustainable world.
The General Comment No.26 is informed by the collective, from human rights institutions, Indigenous People organizations to United Nations agencies. Most importantly, what makes this General Comment even more remarkable is that it is an outcome of collaboration with over 16,000 children from across 121 countries including children residing in communities at the forefront of the environmental and climate crises. General Comment No.26 is a culmination of the views, experience, and demands from children across the world on their rights, the environment, and climate change.
The General Comment No. 26 will be officially launched on 18 September 2023 at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland.