A cause worthy of more effort: the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Climate Change decision

Abstract

On 22 September 2021 the Committee on the Rights of the Child adopted a series of decisions in Communications Nos 104 - 108/2019, CRC/C/88/D/107/2019. The communications were brought by young people against Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey over their alleged failure to prevent and adequately mitigate the consequences of climate change. They argued that this constituted a violation of their rights under Articles 6, 24, and 30 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Convention). Article 5 of the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention (Protocol) allows individuals to bring communications against state parties.