Civil society and UN experts call on the Human Rights Council to recognise the right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment as an essential step towards protecting children’s rights to health and life. It is beyond debate that children are wholly dependent on the natural environment to lead dignified, healthy and fulfilling lives, including a safe climate, clean air, safe water, and adequate sanitation, healthy and sustainably produced food, non-toxic environments to learn and play in, and healthy biodiversity and ecosystems. Children and future generations will shoulder a disproportionate share of the burden of environmental harm. This Statement echoes the call of millions of children and youth across the world who are demanding more urgent and ambitious action to tackle the root causes and impacts of the global environmental crisis.

The Joint Statement by UN human rights experts and a coalition of children’s rights and human rights civil society organisations, including GI-ESCR, was presented to the UN Human Rights Council today (1 July 2020) as it held its annual Full Day Meeting on the rights of the child. This year the discussion is focused on ‘Realising children’s right to a healthy environment’.

Issuing a Call to Action, the Statement highlights that environmental degradation is one of the root causes of zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19, which has caused more than 475,000 deaths to date, and inflicted untold suffering on children. States now have an unprecedented opportunity to implement transformational recovery plans that protect children’s rights and the environment, while addressing the drivers of climate change, biodiversity loss, toxic pollution, and zoonotic diseases.

The Joint Statement to the 44th session of the Human Rights Council is available here.