COP28 Policy Brief:
Ahead of COP28 in Dubai, the CERI coalition and partners have come together once more to develop a unified position on how children’s rights can be elevated and mainstreamed across negotiations under the UNFCCC. In particular, the coalition seeks to build awareness of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s new General Comment No. 26 and the authoritative guidance this provides.
General Comment 26: how can it be a game-changer for COP Decisions & child rights
The General Comment 26 of the UNCRC on children’s rights and the environment with a focus on climate change can help to ensure that all climate decisions safeguard the rights of the most vulnerable, particularly children, and cooperate with language on policy coherence at COP decisions.
Speakers:
Ann Skelton – Chair, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
Sagarika Sriram – GC26 Child Advisor and Climate Advocate
Paloma Escudero, Special Advisor, UNICEF
Malama Mwila, Regional Advocacy Lead, Save the Children
Letícia Silva, International Legal Advisor, Alana Institute*
Dr Mitchell Lennan, One Ocean Hub
Taissa, young Indigenous climate advocate from Brazil, World Vision
COP27 Position Paper:
Incorporating child rights into climate action
In the second half of 2022, CERI coalition members and the wider child rights community came together to figure out how the negotiations taking place in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt could, for the first time, robustly reflect the need to consider children’s rights in climate action.
The outcome of this unprecedented collaboration is Incorporating Child Rights into Climate Action, a position paper that provides the rationale for the consideration of child rights along with six entry points for child rights in negotiations at COP 27.
The six entry points were arrived at through an analysis of the documents and the negotiations coming out of the negotiations in Bonn in June 2022. The recommendations are designed to be concrete and targeted, making them easier to be adopted by champion Parties. These entry points are:
- Entry Point A: Action for Climate Empowerment
- Entry Point B: Climate Finance (including Loss and Damage)
- Entry Point C: The Global Goal on Adaptation & the Nairobi Work Programme
- Entry Point D: The Global Stocktake
- Entry Point E: Gender
- Entry Point F: Ocean-Based Action at the UNFCCC
2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In that time, there has never been a dedicated decision focused on children’s environmental rights. We are working to change that and hope that the integration of child rights across negotiation strands at COP 27 will mark the first step towards greater recognition of child rights under the UNFCCC.
The position paper has been endorsed by 25 organisations: Alana, Child Fund Alliance, Child Rights International Network (CRIN), Child Rights Network for Southern Africa, Climate Equity Collaborative, CSO Forum of the African Child Committee, Don Bosco Green Alliance, Global Action Plan, Just Planet, Oceanic Global, One Ocean Hub, Our Kids Climate, Plan International, Project Dryad, Queen’s University Belfast, Save the Children, Terre des Hommes, The International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), the International Society for Children’s Health and the Environment (ISCHE), Mtoto News, UNESCO, UNICEF, World Future Council, World Vision and YOUNGO.