Restriction lift date: 2027-12-30
The environmental action of children/youth and its impact on human rights law
Loading...
Files
Date
2026-06-30
Authors
Daly, Aoife
Reid, Katie
Clarke, Aniva
Lam, Bach
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Routledge, Taylor and Francis.
Published Version
Abstract
The chapter considers how the action of children and youth for the environment, which started out with protests and conversations with adults in power, has now had an impact on the law. Children and youth have been taking cases and petitions before national courts and international bodies such as the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. They have in some cases been making legal history with those actions. International human rights law instruments such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child have also benefited from this action. For example, children and youth inspired and hugely shaped a UN human rights document – the General Comment of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on children's rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change. This chapter involves the input of young writers who were in a global children's advisery team which supported the Committee in drafting this General Comment, as well as Katie Reid, the Child Advisers’ facilitator and child participation lead for this process more broadly. Young advisers Bach (now aged 18, from Vietnam) and Āniva (now aged 17, from Samoa) share their reflections on the Child Advisers’ role and the outcome of the process more broadly.
Description
Keywords
Human rights law , Environmental action , Children , [Law] , Youth
Citation
Daly, A, Reid, K, Clarke, A & Lam, B 2026, The environmental action of children/youth and its impact on human rights law. in S Akram & B Bowman (eds), Routledge Handbook of Young People’s Environmental Activism. Routledge, Taylor and Francis. , pp. 480-494. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003409434-40