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