Policy brief: Integrating the General Comment 26 on Children’s Rights and a Healthy Environment in the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework
“This policy brief is aimed at experts in biodiversity law, governance, conservation and sustainable use. It seeks to clarify the relevance of the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) for the realisation of children’s right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. To that end, this note explains the extent to which the GBF already refers to children, and connects implicitly the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) with the UN General Comment No. 26 on children’s rights and the environment, with a special focus on climate change (GC26). The Comment was adopted by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, and provides more clarity on the risks and opportunities to ensure the protection of children’s rights in the context of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use. This policy brief will focus in particularly on children’s human right to be heard, the rights of Indigenous children and girls, and child environmental human rights defenders. The brief pays particular attention to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity, which is crucial also for climate change mitigation and adaptation…”
Artwork: Margherita Brunori