In August, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) launched General Comment No. 26 (2023) on children’s rights and the environment, which focuses particularly on climate change.
This General Comment is a landmark text which recognises children’s right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as part of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while considering the complexity of the environmental crisis and the specific and urgent threat it poses to children’s rights globally.
Children’s rights and the environment are considered in terms of their intersections with the right to health and the right to education. With regard to children’s right to education and the environment, the CRC considers the paradox that the right to education is both threatened by environmental degradation, and instrumental in safeguarding children’s rights in relation to the natural world.
Indeed, the Committee confirms that in the context of the intensification of the triple planetary crisis, comprising ‘the climate emergency, the collapse of biodiversity and pervasive pollution’, education reflects an essential cornerstone of a child rights-based approach to the environment. The CRC considers education to be a powerful tool instrumental for the protection of children’s rights and the environment, and central to awareness raising and preparedness for the impacts of damage to the environment. Simultaneously, education and the right which upholds it is increasingly vulnerable to the ‘impact of environmental harm, as it can result in school closures and disruptions, school dropout and the destruction of schools and places to play’.
General Comment 26 recalls that the aims of education defined in article 29 (1) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child require states to direct the education of children to the development of respect for the natural environment, while stressing that Article 29 (1) should be read in conjunction with Article 28, ‘to ensure that every child has the right to receive an education that reflects environmental values’. The CRC thus makes a series of suggestions regarding the core aspects of a rights based environmental education, stressing that it 'should be transformative, inclusive, child-centred, child-friendly and empowering'. The Committee also advises that environmental values should be reflected in the training and education of all educational professionals. Importantly, the Committee clarifies that environmental education must be considered in terms of the diversity of lived experiences and learning, and not limited to formal schooling.
Given the impact of the climate crisis on educational infrastructure, the Committee recommends that States should ‘build safe, healthy and resilient infrastructure for effective learning’, and after severe weather events, should ‘ensure physical access to schools, especially for children in remote or rural communities, or consider alternative teaching methods, such as mobile educational facilities and distance learning’.
It is critical to prioritise the climate proofing and renovation of schools which are attended by underserved communities, the Committee finds, and following emergencies, States should seek ‘alternative housing for displaced populations as soon as possible to ensure that schools are not used as shelters’. General Comment 26 also notes the potential for severe weather events in areas affected by armed conflict to lead to the targeting of schools by armed groups.
The Committee suggests that:
States should recognize and address the disproportionate indirect and knock-on effects of environmental degradation on children’s education, paying special attention to gender-specific situations, such as children leaving school due to additional domestic and economic burdens in households facing environment-related shocks and stress.
Equally, General Comment 26 raises the issue of the link between children’s mental health and environmental harm, referencing the emerging link between them, and recommends that public health and education authorities provide response and prevention programmes for depression and eco-anxiety.
FInally, the Committee asserts that children’s right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment should be incorporated into education policies.
This General Comment was prompted by children’s efforts to raise awareness to the environmental crises, and contributions of children both at a general discussion on children’s rights and the environment and through a consultation led by a children’s advisory team which used online surveys, focus groups and in-person national and regional consultations to secure 16,331 contributions from children from 121 countries. In addition, states, experts and stakeholders including civil society organisations submitted inputs to the Committee.
See below for a selection of paragraphs from General Comment 26 that relate to the environment. Read the full General Comment here.
General Comment 26: Selected paragraphs relating to education
8. A clean, healthy and sustainable environment is both a human right itself and necessary for the full enjoyment of a broad range of children’s rights. Conversely, environmental degradation, including the consequences of the climate crisis, adversely affects the enjoyment of these rights, in particular for children in disadvantaged situations or children living in regions that are highly exposed to climate change. The exercise by children of their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, to information and education, to participate and be heard and to effective remedies can result in more rights-compliant, and therefore more ambitious and effective, environmental policies. In this way, children’s rights and environmental protection form a virtuous circle.
B. Evolution of international law on human rights and the environment
9. The Convention explicitly addresses environmental issues in article 24 (2) (c), by which States are obliged to take measures to combat disease and malnutrition, taking into consideration the dangers and risks of environmental pollution, and under article 29 (1) (e), by which they are required to direct the education of children to the development of respect for the natural environment. Since the adoption of the Convention, growing acceptance has emerged of the wide-ranging interconnections between children’s rights and environmental protection. Unprecedented environmental crises and the resulting challenges for the realization of children’s rights require a dynamic interpretation of the Convention.
II. Specific rights under the Convention as they relate to the environment
13. Children’s rights, like all human rights, are indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. Some rights are particularly threatened by environmental degradation. Other rights play an instrumental role in safeguarding children’s rights in relation to the environment. The right to education, for example, is a right that has both dimensions.
D. Right to be heard (art. 12)
27. States must ensure that age-appropriate, safe and accessible mechanisms are in place for children’s views to be heard regularly and at all stages of environmental decision-making processes for legislation, policies, regulations, projects and activities that may affect them, at the local, national and international levels. For free, active, meaningful and effective participation, children should be provided with environmental and human rights education, age-appropriate and accessible information, adequate time and resources and a supportive and enabling environment. They should receive information about the outcomes of environment-related consultations and feedback on how their views were taken into account and have access to child-sensitive complaint procedures and remedies when their right to be heard in the environmental context is disregarded.
H. Right to the highest attainable standard of health (art. 24)
41. Another concern is children’s current and anticipated psychosocial and mental health conditions caused by environmental harm, including climate change-related events. The clear emerging link between environmental harm and children’s mental health, such as depression and eco-anxiety, requires pressing attention, both in terms of response and prevention programmes, by public health and education authorities.
J. Right to education (arts. 28 and 29 (1) (e))
51. Education is one of the cornerstones of a child rights-based approach to the environment. Children have highlighted that education is instrumental in protecting their rights and the environment and in increasing their awareness and preparedness for environmental damage; however, the right to education is highly vulnerable to the impact of environmental harm, as it can result in school closures and disruptions, school dropout and the destruction of schools and places to play.
52. Article 29 (1) (e) of the Convention, requiring that the education of a child be directed to the development of respect for the natural environment, should be read in conjunction with article 28, to ensure that every child has the right to receive an education that reflects environmental values.
53. A rights-based environmental education should be transformative, inclusive, child-centred, child-friendly and empowering. It should pursue the development of the child’s personality, talents and abilities, acknowledge the close interrelationship between respect for the natural environment and other ethical values enshrined in article 29 (1) of the Convention and have both a local and global orientation. School curricula should be tailored to children’s specific environmental, social, economic and cultural contexts and promote understanding of the contexts of other children affected by environmental degradation. Teaching materials should provide scientifically accurate, up-to-date and developmentally and age-appropriate environmental information. All children should be equipped with the skills necessary to face expected environmental challenges in life, such as disaster risks and environment-related health impacts, including the ability to critically reflect upon such challenges, solve problems, make well-balanced decisions and assume environmental responsibility, such as through sustainable lifestyles and consumption, in accordance with their evolving capacities.
54. Environmental values should be reflected in the education and training of all professionals involved in education, encompassing teaching methods, technologies and approaches used in education, school environments and preparing children for green jobs. Environmental education extends beyond formal schooling to embrace the broad range of lived experiences and learning. Exploratory, non-formal and practical methods, such as outdoor learning, are a preferred way of delivering this aim of education.
55. States should build safe, healthy and resilient infrastructure for effective learning. This includes ensuring the availability of pedestrian and biking routes and public transportation to school and that schools and alternative learning facilities are located at safe distances from sources of pollution, flooding, landslides and other environmental hazards, including contaminated sites, and the construction of buildings and classrooms with adequate heating and cooling and access to sufficient, safe and acceptable drinking water and sanitation facilities. Environmentally friendly school facilities, such as those with lighting and heating sourced from renewable energy and edible gardens, can benefit children and ensure compliance by States with their environmental obligations.
56. During and after water scarcity, sandstorms, heatwaves and other severe weather events, States should ensure physical access to schools, especially for children in remote or rural communities, or consider alternative teaching methods, such as mobile educational facilities and distance learning. Underserved communities should be prioritized for the climate-proofing and renovation of schools. States should ensure alternative housing for displaced populations as soon as possible to ensure that schools are not used as shelters. When responding to emergencies caused by severe weather events in areas already affected by armed conflict, States should ensure that schools do not become targets for armed groups’ activity.
57. States should recognize and address the disproportionate indirect and knock-on effects of environmental degradation on children’s education, paying special attention to gender-specific situations, such as children leaving school due to additional domestic and economic burdens in households facing environment-related shocks and stress.
III. Right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment
63. Children have the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. This right is implicit in the Convention and directly linked to, in particular, the rights to life, survival and development, under article 6, to the highest attainable standard of health, including taking into consideration the dangers and risks of environmental pollution, under article 24, to an adequate standard of living, under article 27, and to education, under article 28, including the development of respect for the natural environment, under article 29.
66. Procedural elements, including access to information, participation in decision-making and child-friendly access to justice, with effective remedies, have equal importance to the empowerment of children, including through education, to become agents of their own destiny.
67. States should incorporate children’s right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment into their national legislation and take adequate measures to implement it in order to strengthen accountability. This right should be mainstreamed across all decisions and measures concerning children, including policies related to education, leisure, play, access to green spaces, child protection, children’s health and migration, and national frameworks for the implementation of the Convention.
74. States should ensure the collection of reliable, regularly updated and disaggregated data and research on environmental harm, including the risks and actual impacts of climate change-related harm on children’s rights. They should include longitudinal data on the effects of environmental harm on children’s rights, in particular on health, education and standard of living at different ages. Such data and research should inform the formulation and evaluation of environmental legislation, policies, programmes and plans at all levels and must be made publicly available.
B. Adaptation
101. Since climate change-related impacts on children’s rights are intensifying, a sharp and urgent increase in the design and implementation of child-sensitive, gender-responsive and disability-inclusive adaptation measures and associated resources is necessary. States should identify climate change-related vulnerabilities among children concerning the availability, quality, equity and sustainability of essential services for children, such as water and sanitation, health care, protection, nutrition and education. States should enhance the climate resilience of their legal and institutional frameworks and ensure that their national adaptation plans and existing social, environmental and budgetary policies address climate change-related risk factors by assisting children within their jurisdiction to adapt to the unavoidable effects of climate change. Examples of such measures include strengthening child protection systems in risk-prone contexts, providing adequate access to water, sanitation and health care, as well as safe school environments, and strengthening social safety nets and protection frameworks, while giving priority to children’s right to life, survival and development. Healthy ecosystems and biodiversity also play an important role in supporting resilience and disaster risk reduction.
C. Loss and damage
105. The manner in which climate-related loss and damage affect children and their rights may be both direct and indirect. Direct impacts include instances where both sudden-onset extreme weather events, such as floods and heavy rains, and slow-onset events, such as droughts, lead to the violation of rights under the Convention. Indirect impacts may include situations in which States, communities and parents are forced to reallocate resources away from intended programmes, such as those for education and health care, towards addressing environmental crises.