Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General Comment № 26 (2023) on Children’s Rights and the Environment, with a Special Focus on Climate Change [22 August 2023]

I am elated to share that General Comment № 26 (2023) on Children’s Rights and the Environment, with a Special Focus on Climate Change, emphasizes the urgent need to address the adverse effects of environmental degradation, on the enjoyment of children’s rights (including children with disabilities), and clarifies the obligations of States to address environmental harm and climate change. The Committee on the Rights of the Child, in this general comment, extensively addresses the issues of children with disabilities and underlines their specific requirements re climate action.

It gives me a deep sense of satisfaction to be a part of the consultation process on the CRC Committee’s Draft General Comment on Climate Change and make positive contributions that help shape the document to make it more inclusive of the rights of children, adolescents and youth with disabilities.

I am grateful to The Disability Team at UNICEF NYHQ and International Disability Alliance, for involving me in the workshop, wherein I highlighted the disproportionate impact of climate change on children with disabilities, given their heightened vulnerability because of greater exposure, higher sensitivity and lower ability and advocated for disability-inclusive climate justice by ensuring universally accessible measures among other adaptation and mitigation actions and disaggregated data. I submitted a written submission in this regard as well.

On a white background, UINCEF’s Certificate of Participation dated 7 February 2023 with the following text in the body “The Disability Team at UNICEF NYHQ would like to acknowledge the participation of Abhishek Kumar in the workshop on the CRC Committee’s Draft General Comment on climate change.” At the centre-top, there is a blue logo of UNICEF with the tagline ‘For Every Child’. and at the centre-bottom, text “Your opinion matters!” along with a blue sketch portraying children and UNICEF’s logo.

The highlights of the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General Comment № 26 (2023) on children’s rights and the environment, with a special focus on climate change with respect to children with disabilities are the following:

1. Right to non-discrimination: The impact of environmental harm has a discriminatory effect on certain groups of children, especially Indigenous children, children belonging to minority groups, children with disabilities and children living in disaster-prone or climate-vulnerable environments. [Para 14]

2. States should collect disaggregated data to identify the differential effects of environment-related harm on children and to better understand intersectionalities, paying special attention to groups of children who are most at risk, and to implement special measures and policies, as required. [Para 15]

3. Right to be heard: Additional support and special strategies may be required to empower children in disadvantaged situations, such as children with disabilities, children belonging to minority groups and children living in vulnerable areas, to exercise their right to be heard. [Para 26].

4. Access to information: States have an obligation to make environmental information available. Dissemination methods should be appropriate to children’s ages and capacities and aimed at overcoming obstacles, such as illiteracy, disability, language barriers, distance and limited access to information and communications technology. [Para 34]

5. Access to justice and remedies: States should provide access to justice pathways for children, including complaint mechanisms that are child-friendly, gender-responsive and disability-inclusive, to ensure their engagement with effective judicial, quasi-judicial and non-judicial mechanisms, including child-centred national human rights institutions, for violations of their rights relating to environmental harm. [Para 83]

6. Adaptation: Since climate change-related impacts on children’s rights are intensifying, a sharp and urgent increase in the design and implementation of child-sensitive, gender-responsive and disability-inclusive adaptation measures and associated resources is necessary. States should identify climate change-related vulnerabilities among children concerning the availability, quality, equity and sustainability of essential services for children, such as water and sanitation, health care, protection, nutrition and education. [Para 101]

7. Neither the design nor the implementation of adaptation measures should discriminate against groups of children at heightened risk, such as young children, girls, children with disabilities, children in situations of migration, Indigenous children and children in situations of poverty or armed conflict. States should take additional measures to ensure that children in vulnerable situations affected by climate change enjoy their rights, including by addressing the underlying causes of vulnerability. [Para 102]

About the Author:

Adv. Abhishek Kumar [abhishek.ncpedp@gmail.com]

Founder and curator, The Sangyan

NCPEDP-Javed Abidi fellow on Disability [2021–24]