Environmental justice

Information on environmental justice

“Environmental damage is a pressing human rights challenge, which has an impact on children’s lives today and in the future. Violations of their rights resulting from environmental harm can have irreversible, lifelong and even transgenerational consequences. Children everywhere suffer violations of their right to life, development, health, food, water, education, culture, play and other rights because governments fail to protect the natural environment. The impact of pollution in one place can be felt by children living far away and climate change is unquestionably a global problem. While environmental harm affects people at any age, children are particularly vulnerable, due to their evolving physical and mental development and status within society. Certain groups of children, including children from indigenous, low-income or other marginalised communities are often at a higher risk, which raises the question for environmental injustice.”

Committee on the Rights of the Child (2016), Report of the 2016 Day of General Discussion: Child Rights and the Environment, (Geneva: OHCHR), p4.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child has highlighted the impact of environmental degradation on children’s rights, most notably their article 24 right to health. Climate change, due to the increase in greenhouse gases, is also having a severely detrimental impact on children’s rights across the world. A recent paper published in the Lancet summarised findings from the Lancet’s annual report ‘Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change’ stated that:

“Children are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Harmful exposures during childhood can irreversibly define physical and mental health and wellbeing, and children’s reliance on adults for their physical safety and emotional development limits their capacity to control their environment. Through increased exposure to extreme weather events, increased environmental suitability for infectious disease transmission and threats to food and water security, climate change will directly impact on children’s health and add extra pressure on already overwhelmed health systems, further undermining the rights of the child to good health and access to health care, to an adequate standard of living and to social security. The impacts of climate change and subsequent inequalities will be felt most by the world’s poorest children. Children born today will inherit a warming world, facing increasing impacts of climate change throughout their lifetimes.”

Monitoring Government – what is government doing to address environmental degradation and climate change?

The Northern Ireland Executive has passed Climate Change (Northern Ireland) Act 2022, which sets legally binding greenhouse gas reduction targets, and developed a Green Growth Strategy to deliver on these targets. The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs has also developed an Environment Strategy to protect and enhance the environment. Disappointing both strategies await Executive approval.

Our work on Environmental Justice

We have provided advice to government on the development of the Green Growth Strategy and Environment Strategy. A Child Rights Impact Assessment approach should be taken in relation to the development and delivery of strategies to address climate change, sustainability and environmental degradation. In doing so this this will ensure timely consideration of how children’s rights would be affected, and allow for planning of meaningful engagement of children and young people.

We have worked with the European Network of Ombudsmen for Children to develop a Statement on Climate Action in Sept 2022. This statement highlights the importance of children and young people’s participation in addressing climate change, including their right to information, to protest, challenge and to access legal complaints mechanisms.

A second priority for NICCY has been promoting the participation of children and young people in decision-making on environmental matters, including climate change. From the start, our work on environmental justice has been informed by engagement with children and young people, both those on the NICCY Youth Panel and more widely. The NICCY Youth Panel have developed their own calls for government relating to the priorities of COP-26, and have participated in the work of the European Network of Young Advisers (ENYA), advising on the production of the ENOC statement on Children’s Rights and Climate Justice.

More Info

For further information on our work on environmental justice, contact alex@niccy.org