‘Finally, the People in Charge are Listening to What Children are Saying’: Save the Children on UN Human Rights Council’s Adoption of Climate Crisis Resolutions

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (Oct. 8, 2021)—Today, the UN Human Rights Council has adopted resolutions that:

• establish a new UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change;
• recognize access to a clean and healthy environment as a fundamental right.

In response to these actions, Yolande Wright, Global Director of Child Poverty, Climate and Urban at Save the Children, said:

“These are landmark decisions by the UN Human Rights Council that could have huge implications for children’s rights to a safe and sustainable future. Both resolutions adopted today by the UN Human Rights Council show that finally, the people in charge are listening to what children are saying.

“Children across the world are living with the impacts of the climate crisis. Recent research by Save the Children found that children born over the past year face, on average, seven times as many scorching heatwaves as their grandparents, almost three times as many droughts, and three times as many crop failures.

“Children we work with are increasingly telling us that they want to see more action from leaders to limit this crisis. Sixteen-year-old Chatten from the Philippines was just eight when his home was destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan. He told us: ‘Children have contributed least to the climate crisis and yet we’re the ones who will suffer the most.’

“Save the Children welcomes the decisions made today and urges leaders to listen to children, and to take action at the upcoming COP26 conference to limit warming temperatures to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.”