policy brief: 10 key messages for reimagining ocean literacies that consider children’s human rights to development and culturepolicy brief:

By Mia Strand, Sophie Shields and Elisa Morgera

“In May 2023, the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of the Child (the Committee) adopted General Comment No. 26 (GC26) on children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change, following extensive engagements with and inputs from children worldwide, States, human rights institutions, children’s organisations, civil society and research programmes such as the One Ocean Hub. In August 2023, the GC26 was published. The GC26 emphasises that children have the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, linking this to children’s rights to life, health, survival and development, education and adequate standard of living as stipulated by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Alongside this, the GC26 underscores that children should be recognised as agents of change, and that environmental decision-making must provide opportunities for children’s meaningful participation. This, we argue, must involve prioritising children’s access to decolonised and contextually-relevant environmental education and ocean literacies, in order to support the full realisation of children’s human rights that are dependent on a healthy ocean…”

Main photo: Margherita Brunori