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World Children’s Day is a day of celebration for the United Nations, as it marks the annual anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. While adults come together to cherish the accomplishments of child rights, there is no reason for me to celebrate because the rights of children are being violated while the UN closes its eyes. I would know because I was a Petitioner in the first-ever legal complaint brought to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Have you ever wondered if your government is violating your rights?

For most of my childhood, I did not ask myself this question. I was not aware that my government had promised children rights, nor that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child was created to protect us children. Yet, our rights were being violated.

When I learned about this as a teenager, I took to the United Nations to protect my rights and the rights of all children – but I quickly learned that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child was unwilling to act with the urgency that was required to really protect us.

SEEKING CHILD RIGHTS

I’m Raina, an 18-year-old climate justice and child rights advocate from Germany. When I was 12 years old, I first learned about climate change and its consequences on children like me. At just 15 years old, I had the exceptional opportunity to experience the inner workings of the United Nations. I joined 15 other children from around the world, and together we filed the first-ever Petition to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Through the organization Heirs To Our Ocean, I became part of the Children vs Climate Crisis Petition which is a legal action by 16 children from around the world who call upon 5 countries, including Germany, to drastically cut down carbon emissions and address the climate crisis because it violates child rights including our rights to life, health, and culture.

The basis of the Petition is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC), a legally-binding international agreement setting out the civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights of every child, regardless of their race, religion, or abilities. It was adopted in November 1989 and was ratified by all UN member states, except the U.S. and Somalia, which made it the most widely ratified human rights treaty in the world. Through its ratification, countries acknowledged that children are a part of the most vulnerable people on our Earth and need special protection.

When climate change induces catastrophes like storms, floods, or droughts strike, children are amongst the most affected and vulnerable. The climate crisis is a child rights crisis. Children are the greatest stakeholders in the climate crisis, making it fundamental for my generation that our climate is stabilized.

Children need a healthy environment to sustain a healthy life. Children need a safe home to carry on traditions and practice their culture, as their ancestors did. But first and foremost, children need a healthy planet to survive. These are some of the rights promised to me and to all other children on our planet through the UN CRC.

To protect our rights and the environment, we 16 children brought our individual stories to the United Nations to exemplify why climate protection is so crucial for our generation. The climate crisis intersects with human and child rights violations through profound direct harm. For instance, three of my fellow Petitioners from the Marshall Islands — Litokne, Ranton, and David — are currently watching their homes and culture literally go underwater because of sea level rise. Their right to cultural identity is directly being violated, as the Marshallese are being forced to leave their islands. Debby from Nigeria gets infected with Malaria multiple times every year due to increasing temperatures that further the breeding of mosquitos. Her right to health is directly being violated. The reality is that children are suffering because of the climate crisis, and this will only get worse in the future if systemic change doesn’t occur NOW.

DEEMED INADMISSIBLE

I still remember the feeling when we presented the Petition for the first time on the 23rd of September 2019, at a press conference at UNICEF Headquarters in New York. As I stepped onto the stage with my fellow Petitioners, I felt we actually had a chance at making a positive change for all children around the world who couldn’t be there themselves. Our voices were intended to reflect those of children everywhere, on all habitable continents. At that moment I felt listened to despite my young age. I believed that our experiences and opinions actually mattered to the adults listening.

However, three years later, on the 11th of October 2021, our Petition was declared inadmissible on the basis of not exhausting domestic remedies. Despite the Committee on the Rights of the Child agreeing with the points we made about the climate crisis, they dismissed our Petition,

telling us we had not fought our individual governments hard enough yet to justify taking our case to the UN.

I could not understand how the Committee members were able to acknowledge the violation of our rights but not act upon it. I wondered — How could this Committee, formed to protect me and children around the world under a ratified Convention, acknowledge the violation of our rights, including to life, yet not act upon it due to a technicality?

The protection of our rights shouldn’t be up to technicalities or politics. The petition wasn’t just a piece of paper. It was a representation of the voices of millions of children around the world who are experiencing a life threatening crisis that violates their rights! What frustrated me most is that the Committee could have continued our case through an exception to exhausting domestic remedies if the procedure would be unnecessarily prolonged or futile. Our Petition fit into this exception perfectly, which we showed through several examples. We had no choice other than to go to the UN directly because the politics of nations are tied so deeply to corporate, profit-oriented interests. The filing of complaints within our individual nations would most likely be unsuccessful. Nonetheless, our Petition was deemed inadmissible.

I felt alone, frustrated, and scared when I learned that the Petition would not move forward. If children are not able to claim the protection of their rights when they are being violated, what is the point of having the UN CRC altogether?

More so, this was the first time a Petition had ever been brought by children filing a grievance due to human rights violations under the UN CRC. If the highest international body tasked with protecting children fails to do so, then who else can we turn to? The UN CRC Committee refused to send a message to countries around the world by allowing the Petition to go forward. It could have set an international precedent of intolerance towards child rights violations, but choose not to.

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD

Since the filing of the Petition in 2019, I have had the opportunity to attend multiple UN gatherings, including the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child with Heirs To Our Ocean in November 2019.

It was a multiple-day convening in Geneva, which highlighted achievements of the Convention and prompted discussions about present child rights issues. However, climate change was not on the agenda. In fact, the few youth present from Heirs To Our Ocean and other organizations were the only ones who brought the topic to the table. Sometime after our speaking at the convening, the Environmental and Child Participation Working Groups were formed which now work with the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

The more I participated in these high-level spaces, the more I noticed the lack of meaningful youth participation. I feel grateful to voice my opinion at panels or in discussions, however, the participation of young people has to be improved as long as our voices are not considered beyond the panels we sit on. Letting young people speak for a few minutes is not actually listening to them.

Furthermore, I became aware of another obstacle — youth words and ideas are not taken seriously by adults. I have struggled with this many times. “It is crucial to have young voices represented at meetings like this” is what I regularly hear when attending high-level conferences where youth participation is written in bold letters on the agenda. “You are so courageous for coming here and representing the voice of your generation.” Adults market this idea well.

However, superficial participation does not bring about any change. For us young people, this is not a matter of politics nor profits nor inconveniences. Our future is at stake. If the UN is really serious about youth participation, they have to let young people enter the closed doors where adults make decisions about our future. UN convenings have to become more accessible to the public and allow children’s voices to be included.

Going even further, I think youth should not just be considered, they should be allowed to make the decision. Effectively, this means having youth be part of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. It means inviting youth to EVERY table where decisions about their future are made, allowing them to not only listen but decide. This way, we can ensure that young people’s voices are always considered when decisions are made that we are most affected by.

Through embracing more young people with diverse backgrounds in these high-level spaces, I am hopeful that positive change can be realized. The United Nations is supposed to represent all people, which includes the next generation of leaders and future generations. If this is successfully accomplished, then we can start finding equitable and just solutions for all children and for the environment we all share.

In Salvador, Bahia, Brazil our recently formed H2OO chapter participated in H2OO’s Operation Global Sweep where we were able to bring community members together to participate. We also participated, and some helped organize a tree-planting effort where we planted around 40 trees! The location was an area that had been destroyed in the Vale Encantado forest before the fight to protect the area began.

These actions represented us youth “acting locally thinking globally” so that our community actions can have a positive influence around the world even if we may not realize it!

Lastly, the Brazil Youth Advisory Council for the UN Ocean Decade (Brazil YAC for UNOD) is growing stronger and increasing its activity. So far we have organized a National Sweep and Brand Audit across Brazil, participated in diverse panels, aired on our first podcast, and even participated in the Dialogues of Ocean Literacy event in October. At this event we worked on diverse activities related to communicating about the Ocean Decade.

Now the Brazil YAC for UNOD Youth Advisory Council hopes to begin working directly with policy to bring youth voices into this space!

Forced child marriage is NOT a solution to the climate crisis.

To call attention to this, I spoke at the UN Association’s Mutually Assured Survival Climate Action panel that took place in October. As a participant, my goal was to spread awareness about the harmful, intersectional impacts of climate change on children, women, girls, and youth around the world.

The changing climate is causing ever more families affected by climate change to force their children into child marriage. The economic hardships of climate change will threaten to expose millions more children to gender-based violence, to defilement, rape, child trafficking, sexual exploitation, and child labor. These families are already so desperate in the face of present day economic threats –made worse by the Covid Pandemic–that they see the dowry income as their only chance for survival.

It does little to lift them out of extreme poverty, yet what other options do they have? This story is set to repeat itself all over the globe. An additional tragedy is that while the poor might seek short-term solutions to food insecurity, many around the globe do not recognize the role they are playing in bringing about such acts of desperation. By not taking climate change seriously they are adding to the toll of suffering borne by millions of children worldwide.

My job as an advocate for the welfare of girls and threatened communities is to help connect the dots for those who may not be aware of the consequences of doing too little to address climate change. Many innocent souls are being put in harm’s way. As I write this, in poor, middle income and even high income communities across the globe, it is estimated that 1.5 Billion children worldwide live without social protection and face threats to their wellbeing and safety. They are being robbed of childhood, quality education, and a chance to survive. Further, 1 in 10 children, nearly 160 Million worldwide, are engaged in work, and half of those work under hazardous conditions. [1]

According to Unicef, “The number of children in child labor declined by 85.5 million between 2000 and 2020, from 16% to 9.6%.” [2] Decades of efforts to end child labor then suffered a setback due to the economic havoc resulting from the Covid 19 pandemic.

The point I wanted to emphasize during my presentation was: Dealing with climate change must be a key focus of effort for those who want to see a reduction in child exploitation–in all its forms. As someone who has lived through and barely escaped child marriage, I would like to especially emphasize the vulnerability of girls. I would like to create more awareness about the connection between threats to children’s well-being and the economic devastation faced in impoverished, climate-vulnerable areas. These areas will see a decrease in the quality of life for children.

Business as usual means perpetuating long-standing inequalities that will only intensify this vicious cycle of poverty and lead to higher rates of child exploitation. If we want to change the outcome, we must tap into all available mitigation solutions and help the wider public see how the two are related.

If we want to do something to help prevent the exploitation of children, we have to shift our view of how these problems came about:

The climate crisis is not something that just suddenly arrived, but rather something we have created through actions and decisions. These, in turn, came from patriarchal systems and through profit-focused leadership. For example, allowing extractive industries to continuously exploit deep blue sea habitats despite its proven harm to our planet.

The climate crisis is a global problem. Reducing the rate at which it is spiraling can mean relief for those desperate enough to force children into labor and unwanted early marriage. All countries need to cooperate with and work with youth activists to find better alternative ways to reduce the impacts from both global crises.”

Sources:

[1] https://www.un.org/en/obserinvances/world-day-against-child-labour

[2] https://www.unicef.org/documents/ending-child-labour-through-multisectoral-approach

Speaking at the 3 Ocean Advocates event at the Environmental Forum of Marin was an amazing opportunity. I was able to share my personal journey with getting involved in ocean protection and how important it is that young people are given a chance to develop the skills that will equip us to advocate for our planet’s health.

I shared my experience with the H2OO RAISE (Regenerative Agriculture and Indigenous Systems for our Environment) initiative. Growing up in a rural and agricultural community, I witnessed firsthand the impacts of the climate crisis and other environmental issues as we experienced wildfires, water contamination, and annual flooding in my hometown.

These impacts renewed my conviction that it is crucial we explore regenerative agriculture as a solution to climate change and water quality issues, empower small farmers to grow regenerative, and ensure equitable access to the food we produce.

Today is National Recycling Day, but contrary to popular belief, recycling is not the solution to plastic pollution!

Most plastics we use cannot be recycled. Even recycled plastic cannot be reprocessed infinitely, which means the plastic will end up in landfill eventually. Greenwashing, which makes a non-solution like recycling seem good for the environment, is a common tactic corporations use to evade accountability for the plastic waste they create so they can continue to produce it.

As for compostables, 5 billion trees are cut down every year, which is 1,712,329 trees cut down every hour. Compostable packaging isn’t as renewable as we thought, and we are buying right into the problem because it, too, is being greenwashed.

‘Compostable’ plastic doesn’t actually compost well and it, along with other plastic foodware, is often coated in known carcinogens called PFAS. These toxins spill into the ocean and leach into the earth, contaminating the food we eat and wreaking havoc on marine life. If landfills, giant garbage patches across the sea, and tainted food aren’t enough reasons to care about the plastic problem, I don’t know what is.

Because of the threat single-use plastics pose to the health and safety of the next generation and the environment, the Berkeley Heirs have made it their mission to minimize single-use plastics! We’ve helped pass a dining ordinance in Berkeley that charges $0.25 for plastic cutlery rather than providing it for free with every meal. The idea is to raise awareness that some single-use choices we make are avoidable. We’ve also lobbied our local school board to get the district to ditch disposables for school lunches in favor of reusable metal cutlery. The idea is off to a promising start, as the district is looking into funding and hiring someone to wash the cutlery.

Plastic pollutes in all ways, from the greenhouse gas emissions when it is created, to the waste left behind in our oceans, and the toxic chemicals leaching into our earth and bodies. So as a last thought, I would urge you to minimize the harm that plastics have on our environment and on us in any way possible, like carrying with you reusable cutlery.

International Coastal Cleanup Day is one of the world’s largest annual preservation and protection volunteer events for our ocean’s coasts. But did you know that the plastic crisis can’t be “cleaned up”?

Unfortunately, plastic does not biodegrade but instead breaks down into very small pieces which are carried with water, currents, and winds throughout the ocean, become ingested by animals, and make their way to unreachable locations. The concentration and the distribution of these microplastics are so widespread and the particles are so small that trying to clean them up is not possible. In fact, new studies shared this year show that microplastics have now made their way into the human bloodstream!

Heirs To Our Ocean recognizes that the true solution to stop plastic pollution is to stop it at its source, with the producing corporations! Each year Heirs To Our Ocean youth engage and motivate communities to participate in Brand Audits and Sweeps where the goal is not to “clean it up” but instead to collect important data on the plastic items we find in the environment and hold the brands responsible accountable! The cumulative result is not only a cleaner and healthier coastline but also a raised consciousness for accessible actions people can take to stop plastic at the source.

For this year’s International Coastal Cleanup Day, on September 17th, Heirs To Our Ocean joined Surfrider Foundation San Francisco to lead our biggest, single-location, Brand Audit and Sweep yet, collecting over 2300 plastic items on Ocean Beach in San Francisco. We also gathered over 1400 cigarette butts, 84 straws and 31 shotgun shell wads in just 2 hrs! Cigarette butts, plastic beverage bottles and cups, food wrappers, plastic cutlery, and straws were the most commonly collected categories of items we found this year.

Regarding brands, through our sampling collection, we found @hersheys to be the top polluting brand with 73 of their plastic items collected and recovered! It may come as no surprise that next up came @pepsico with 59 items audited and @marsglobal with 53 items audited. Since 2019, PepsiCo & Mars have been identified in the top 10 polluters through worldwide brand audits.

So, next time you are invited to do a “cleanup”, be sure to spread awareness about Brand Audits and other real solutions to plastic pollution that target this problem at the source with corporate accountability! Head to the Break Free From Plastic Brand Audit Basics website to learn more about Brand Audits and how you can conduct them in your community!”

“I’m so excited to contribute my experience to this group of staggeringly incredible people.

From my work in environmental policy to on-the-ground action, I see similarly ignited faces in the people I work with.

The past Cohorts have made great strides, and I am ready to draw from their experience and prioritize the intertwining of working group goals to reach a more impactful result. As we combine lobbying, toolkits, and outreach, I am honored to help represent this Cohort.”

Zoë, 3rd Cohort U.S. YAC UNOD Co-Chair, California USA

“I joined the U.S. YAC UNOD because a healthy, prosperous ocean is fundamental to a healthy, productive, and prosperous society. My volunteer, advocacy, and policy work with the American Red Cross, Long Beach Green Schools Campaign, and other groups has shown me how global health, climate change, and the environmental justice movement are linked with critical implications for communities around the globe.

We must do more to protect our ocean and environment while preparing for the consequences imposed by those who we have not yet convinced to do the same.

Serving as Co-Chair of the 3rd cohort of the U.S. YAC for UNOD has been an eye-opening experience in learning about the diversity of the ocean and the environmental protection movement. From working with Working Group Committee Co-Chairs on crafting their SMART goals to forming relationships with the U.S. National Committee for the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, my work is just starting as I hope to empower this Cohort to make an impact this year.”

Hamid, 3rd Cohort U.S. YAC UNOD Co-Chair, Rhode Island USA

“Hello, my name is Dakota Peebler, and I’m an H2OO Co-Founder and former Co-Chair of the Regenerative Agriculture and Indigenous Systems for our Environment (RAISE) Initiative. This is a youth-led initiative dedicated to raising awareness and educating about the benefits of learning from traditional ways and Indigenous systems in growing food to move away from harmful industrialized agricultural practices. The focus of the Initiative this past year has been on growing our movement and developing youth connections nationally and globally in purpose. Read on to hear insights from Brigette and Shay, who served as the youth Co-Chairs of RAISE in 2022!”

Dakota, H2OO Co-Founder and RAISE 2020–2022 Chair, California USA

“The most valuable lesson I learned this year as co-chair of the RAISE Initiative is how to effectively collaborate and build on each team member’s strengths to create meaningful projects that the entire group is proud of. I am, admittedly, a very independent person and in the past I have typically not enjoyed group projects; however, leading the RAISE Initiative and having a team of individuals who are as passionate as I am taught me that collaborating can allow a group to combine their individual skills to generate a final product that could not have been accomplished by any one individual on their own.

The greatest example of this within the RAISE Initiative throughout my time as co-chair was our submission for the magazine The Disruptive Quarterly. For our submission to the Ocean, Environment, and Impact edition of The Disruptive Quarterly, RAISE co-chair Shay Muñoz Barton and members Jet Lien, Lydia Latifah Nansubuga, and Dakota Peebler worked together to produce the written piece “Growing Solutions: Three Sisters Method”. Each author also included a personal statement about their experiences with environmental action in connection to the farming method. Finally, I created a piece of digital art illustrating the Three Sisters through a collage to accompany the article. Our submission was truly a beautiful accumulation of each of the RAISE Initiative members’ talents and experiences put together to tell a story of preservation and cooperation in nature.”

Brigette, RAISE 2022 Co-Chair, California USA

“As a co-chair of the RAISE initiative, one of the most impactful lessons I learned was the importance of localized solutions. This is applicable to many different issues facing our world, but learning more through interviews, spending time on farms, and connecting with community leaders about how different “regenerative agriculture practices” look from farm to farm in just one county, let alone all over the world has helped me internalize the importance of this concept, especially with respect to agriculture. Food that heals the earth and feeds people must be grown with respect to climate, culture, and many other deeply connected local factors. The different perspectives of the RAISE team also helped me understand how many ways there are to farm, as I learned about their research and practices in their communities during our meetings. During my time as a RAISE co-chair, after every meeting, I had a new idea to think about and a way of farming I’d never heard of before.”

Shay, RAISE 2022 Co-Chair, California USA