There is no plan(et) B - environmental “crossroads' of children's rights”

Abstract

It is an obvious statement that children are disproportionately affected by changes in their environment, due to their incomplete maturity, evolving capacities, vulnerabilities derived from their age and special developmental needs. Changes in temperature, air and water quality, and access to proper nutrition are likely to have more severe and long-term impacts on children's health, development and well-being, since they basically determine the enjoyment of the right of the child to a healthy environment. The impacts of climate change clearly undermine the effective enjoyment of the rights enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (hereinafter: UN CRC) and its Optional Protocols, including the rights to life, survival and development (art. 6), to family relations and the right not to be separated from one's parents against one's will (arts. 9–10), the highest attainable standard of health (art. 24), an adequate standard of living (art. 27), education (art. 28), freedom from any form of violence or exploitation (arts. 19, 32 and 34–36), the right to recreation and play (art. 31) and the enjoyment of one's culture (art. 30). The climate crisis has been declared as child rights crisis, although children bear the least responsibility for it.The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has clearly identified climate change as one of the biggest threats to children's health and has urged States Parties to put children's health concerns at the centre of their climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.1 Despite data and research explicitly linking environmental harm to child rights violations, increasing knowledge of environmental crises and existing numerous international agreements, the common understanding of the clear relationship between children's rights and the environment is still questionable and obscure.2 In this paper we have gathered the binding international documents which clearly show the close link between children's rights and climate change, and we also analyze the measures taken by the relevant treaty-monitoring body within the field of children's rights. The main outcome of this paper is to give an introduction and an extended overview of the relevant international norms adopted by the environmental ‘crossroads’ of children's rights.