Our Future, Our Voice: Placing children and their rights at the centre of the drive towards a better, greener world

Right On

Diplo Foundation

The struggle for climate justice and for environmental protection and conservation is a struggle for human rights. This point, together with the reverse point – that the full enjoyment of human rights supports more effective and sustainable environmental and climate policies – has been repeatedly recognized in Human Rights Council’s resolutions and international environmental/climate agreements.

Nevertheless, around the world, 93 percent of children live in environments where air pollution exceeds WHO guidelines. According to the UN, the deaths of 1.7 million children under the age of five each year are due to environmental factors – notably air and water pollution and exposure to toxic substances. The impacts of environmental harm fall particularly hard on the youngest children, as well as on indigenous children and those from low-income and marginalized communities.

In order to raise awareness on climate change, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, and thereby to protect their own rights and those of their communities, young people, in particular, have been at the forefront of the worldwide movements: marching peacefully and persistently; engaging in strategic litigation; helping to devise climate solutions; overturning obstacles and overcoming threats.

To find out more about children’s rights in the context of the environment, international efforts and youth engagement tune in on Wednesday 25 November at 15:00 CET.

Moderators

• Felix Kirchmeier, Executive Director, Geneva Human Rights Platform and Manager of Policy Studies, Geneva Academy
• Marc Limon, Executive Director, URG

Panelists

• Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
• Catalina Devandas, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the UN in Geneva
• Daniel Magraw, Professorial Lecturer and Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and President Emeritus, Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)
• Saher Rashid Baig, Youth Advocate for climate, ocean, gender and human rights and a global SDG facilitator

‘Right On’: The Wednesday Web Chat

‘Right On’ is a new digital initiative – co-organized by the Geneva Academy, the Geneva Human Rights Platform, the Geneva Internet Platform, the DiploFoundation, the Universal Right Group, the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex, as well as the Permanent Missions of Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands to the United Nations in Geneva  –  that will keep the human rights dialogue going during these COVID-19 times.

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