Events

Current and Upcoming

The CRC's New General Comment on Children and Climate Change

October 11, 2023
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
America/New_York
Online Event Zoom

Webinar: The CRC's New General Comment on Children and Climate Change: A Tool for Climate Litigation? 

ZOOM LINK

https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_de0zyNf6ReOmdnGnu0Ax-A

Concerned with the unprecedented threat of climate change on children’s rights and inspired by their efforts to transform the environmental and climate justice movement, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child launched General Comment No. 26 on children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change. The new General comment, a result of a series of consultations and workshops with the global community and thousands of children around the world, provides authoritative guidance to States on ensuring a child rights-based approach to responding to the environmental and climate crisis. It addresses how environmental degradation, climate change-related disasters, and phenomena affect children who are particularly climate-vulnerable compared to adults, with specific references to their rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

In addition to its interpretative and clarifying power, General Comment No. 26 has the potential to be used to support the continuously growing number of child-focused climate litigation. To closely examine and interpret the impact of these developments, the Sabin Center’s Peer Review Network on Global Climate Litigation is hosting a webinar on the newly launched General Comment No.26 on October 11, 2023, at 10 am EDT. The speakers, including the Chair of the Committee, Professor Ann Skelton, with insights from academia and litigation practice, will discuss the framework, objectives, and application of the new General Comment and explore how it can become an important tool for addressing environment-related threats to children's. 

 

Speakers

Ann Skelton, Chairperson of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Karabo Ozah, Director and Lecturer, Centre for Child Law, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria

Asteropi Chatzinikola

Maria Antonia Tigre

Michael Burger

Aoife Daly, Professor of Law, School of Law, University College Cork

Freya Doughty- Wagner

Ramin Pejan- Senior Attorney with the International Program

Contact Information

Kemi Adetayo
212 854 8213