Youth Climate Justice team speaks about environmental rights to Cork's young people.

12 Dec 2023

P.I. Professor Aoife Daly and Post-doc researcher Nabin Maharjan spoke to young people about the project; and on environmental rights more broadly on International Human Rights Day.

Each December the Cork Educate Together Secondary School and UCC School of Applied Social Studies post-primary human rights activism conference is held at UCC to celebrate International Human Rights Day. At the Cork Educate Together Secondary School and UCC school of Applied Social Studies post-primary human rights activism conference, young people from secondary schools all over Cork come to UCC to learn about human rights.  

Our team's Principal investigator Professor Aoife Daly and post-doc researcher Nabin Maharjan spoke to these young people about the ERC-funded project; and environmental rights more broadly.  

Aoife described to the young people how human rights are relevant to our everyday lives – when we meet in groups, we are enjoying our right to freedom of association for example. When children and youth give their opinions, they enjoy their rights to be heard under Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Then she turned to environmental rights. Under Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children have a right to a healthy environment. Children and youth have long been leaders when it comes to environmental initiatives.  

 Nabin then presented on children’s environmental work in Nepal. He described how Nepal is famous for its beautiful scenery, UNESCO World Heritage sites, as well as the world’s tallest mountain, Mount Everest. However, Nepal also has many environmental issues, including problems with waste management. Nabin described how he was involved in an initiative, first as a youth himself, and later as a coordinator, whereby children and youth volunteered to clean up world heritage sites, decorate and paint their schools, and create herb gardens for themselves.  

Aoife then discussed how children and youth have been leading the way in climate action around the world. As well as the attention that Greta Thunberg has attracted, other activists such as Vanessa Nakate in Uganda have long been taking their own initiative to bring light to the cause, such as Vanessa’s work on bringing solar power to schools. Youth have also now brought their climate action to courts all over the world. In the Saachi petition to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for example Greta Thunberg and 15 other young people brought a case against big countries, arguing that the failure of these countries to curb emissions violated some of their rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Such as the Right to Life (Article 6) and the Right of Indigenous Children to Enjoy their Culture (Article 30). Although the petition was deemed inadmissible (as the applicants did not first go through national courts), the application established important points of law. The committee recognized (in a first for a UN body) that states could potentially be responsible for transboundary harm such as that caused by the climate crisis. Children and youth now also have their own pavilion -space dedicated to their views and interests COP (Conferences of the Parties) and have been very active at COP28. Children and youth are acting as leaders on climate justice and are transforming the face of international human rights law with their leadership.  

 The young people also participated in the workshops, giving views on environmental rights, and their own opinions on the climate crisis. The Youth Climate Justice team looks forward to inviting more secondary school students back next year.