Hosted at the mouth of the Amazon, COP30 was framed as a turning point for real climate action but the reality fell far short of that promise. While some gains were made, COP30 was ultimately marked by exclusion, missed opportunities and a troubling step back from commitments to phase out fossil fuels. CRIN unpacks what COP30 delivered and what it failed to achieve from a children’s rights perspective.

Sudan’s civil war has put millions of children in danger. Alongside mass displacement and war crimes - amounting to genocide in some regions - the conflict is also degrading the environment, with military operations worsening living conditions and the impacts of climate change. CRIN’s latest briefing examines how these crises intersect to harm children and why international action is needed.

CRIN and 17 child rights and youth organisations are raising concerns about the EU’s ‘Food and Feed Safety Omnibus’. This proposed package of measures shatters key protection standards governing the approval of dangerous pesticides in the European Union. Adopting it would expose children to serious and preventable health risks, violating the rights (and futures) of our youngest citizens.

Despite welcome steps toward recognising children’s rights at COP30, governments fell short on the action needed to protect children from the climate crisis. CRIN has joined the Children’s Environmental Rights Initiative coalition to warn that without the phase-out of fossil fuels - as well a commitment to prioritise children in all climate decision-making - any progress made is purely symbolic. We cannot accept business as usual if we want to secure a liveable future.

The following recommendations have been developed by children and young people who advise and collaborate with the Child Rights International Network (CRIN). All 16 recommendations rely on and are grounded in international law, drawing from the Advisory Opinion on climate change from the International Court of Justice and General Comment 26 from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, among other documents.

The CRIN team was in Geneva in August for the second part of the fifth session on a treaty to end plastic pollution (INC-5.2), where we met siblings Zara and Ashton Hawkins. These under-18 environmental activists are founders of Hidden Plastic, an organisation that exposes the often-overlooked impact of plastics. In this interview, they reflect on the breakdown of the talks, share their experience inside negotiation rooms and discuss how young people can hold governments accountable.

In this interview, we speak with CRIN’s Climate Adviser Shirley Akinyi Ochieng, a 15-year-old environmental activist from Kenya who has been leading projects, campaigns and conversations advocating for the protection of her country’s  environment. She discusses the impact of climate change in her community, as well as the importance of community awareness, government accountability and why children’s perspectives are needed in climate decision-making.

The UN’s Aarhus Convention is a legally binding international treaty that allows the public to take part in environmental governance. This article discusses how the Convention relates to children’s rights and how it can be used to advocate for environmental justice.

For survivors of institutional child sexual abuse, attempts to seek justice can have starkly different outcomes. This article looks at two recent cases of clergy abuse in Latin America, comparing the progress being made in Bolivia to a regression in Argentina, where the Supreme Court overturned one of the country’s most significant convictions.

Written by Niamh Purcell, Youth Climate Justice Advisor for CRIN & RtHE Campaign; Children’s Participatory Rights Advisor.

“Introducing climate justice into international law is the step that we need, because it means that courts will have to formally recognise the ways in which climate change impacts on human rights and human lives. It means that the crisis can no longer be ignored, or that mitigation can be kicked down the road. It will have to be dealt with, and not just in the short-term or with half-hearted efforts: it’s going to help close the gap between our future and our present. It’s going to save lives.” – Niamh Purcell