Blog
Children’s Rights and Climate Crisis Presentation with Cork City Youth Council
Aoife Daly, Dr. Florencia Paz Landeira, and Emily Murray discussed the human rights perspective, key elements of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and its link to the climate crisis at the Cork City Youth Council (Comhairle na nOg) meeting.
On February 14th, the Youth Climate Justice team joined the monthly Cork City Youth Council meeting and delivered a presentation to some of Cork’s most engaged youth in the community. We introduced our project, outlining its primary goals and our anticipated contributions to raising awareness and fostering discussions on the efforts of young people worldwide concerning human rights and environmental justice.
Professor Aoife Daly initiated the discussion by delving into the human rights approach, exploring key human rights instruments and their connection to sociohistorical processes and events. We then focused on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) using engaging techniques, like ‘Children’s Rights Bingo”, to encourage the participating youth to interact with one another and spark a conversation around children’s rights. In line with the themes of the Youth Climate Justice project, there was a strong focus on the articles of the CRC that relate to the environment and those impacted by the changing climate.
Florencia Paz Landeira brought an anthropological perspective to the conversation, emphasizing the significance of a relational and situated approach. This approach shed light on the dynamic, contested, and political dimensions of children's rights in real-life scenarios. She underscored how the current climate crises present new challenges to realizing children's rights, simultaneously revealing children and youth as political citizens and agents of change.
Emily Murray introduced the Committee on the Rights of the Child's General Comment No. 26 on children's rights and the environment, with a particular focus on climate change. She outlined how this document aids governments in understanding the impact of the environment and climate change on children's rights and described the extensive consultation process involved. A diverse children's advisory team, with 16,331 contributions from children across 121 countries, played a crucial role through online surveys, focus groups, and in-person national and regional consultations.
Aoife concluded by expressing that General Comment No. 26 reflects the collective work and climate action undertaken by children and youth globally, both locally and in international courts. We concluded the meeting by inviting all Youth Council members to join us for upcoming participatory workshops and the formal launch of our project that will take place mid-March, during Aoife’s inaugural professorship lecture.
During the children’s rights activities, Aoife, Florencia and Emily were able to experience the exciting energy among the Youth Council when discussing and learning about their rights. Conversations with youth, “wow, we have all of these rights?!” and receiving positive feedback at the end of the presentation was very encouraging as the Youth Climate Justice team gets their feet off the ground and prepares for the next 5 years of exciting workshops with amazing children and youth from around the world.