Promulgated as a General Comment by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (a body of independent experts charged with monitoring implementation of the treaty) and prompted by the efforts of children themselves to bring attention to the triple planetary crisis of the climate emergency, the collapse of biodiversity, and pervasive pollution, the document stresses the urgent need to address the adverse effects of environmental degradation on the human rights of children. This groundbreaking document also clarifies the obligations of States parties to the treaty to address environmental harm and climate change and what mitigation and adaptation measures they can take to uphold the universal human rights of children to live in a clean, healthy, and sustainable world.<\/p>\n
The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely-ratified human rights treaty in history; only one country in the world has failed to join: the United States. But some organizations in the US have been working for years to advance, through state constitutional litigation, the rights of children to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. Late last year, in a landmark climate change lawsuit brought by Our Children’s Trust on behalf of sixteen young people, the\u00a0Montana Supreme Court ruled<\/a>\u00a0children have a constitutional right to \u201ca clean and healthful environment\u201d that includes a stable climate system.<\/p>\n