Climate crisis as a form of structural violence against children and youth

Introduction In August 2023, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child released General Comment 26, Children and the environment with a special focus on climate change, which declared that environmental degradation, including the climate crisis, is a form of structural violence against children; that States are obliged to ensure a clean, healthy and sustainable environment in order to respect, protect and fulfil children’s rights; and that children should be provided with ‘justice pathways’, including facilities to initiate proceedings themselves to hold governments responsible for threatening their well-being.