At COP 27, over 900 children formulate draft seeking ecological rights

As the 27th Conference of Parties (COP 27) has commenced, more than 900 child advocates have vowed to treat the environment fairly. The young people, in an effort to get the attention of world leaders, have created a list of requests for a robust United Nations framework that respects children's ecological rights. It is pertinent to mention that COP 27 is presently taking place in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt. Furthermore, the young people met online to address and discuss their proposals. 

Students from India and other nations engaged in conversation with event organisers and official COP 27 delegates over the course of the three-day "NO COP OUT" event to present the "ADvocal report," which outlines their demands for a future UN treaty on children's rights and the environment, ANI reported.  Approximately 3,500 students have been working on the draft document's framework for the last four months, of which 900 of them attended the most recent "NO COP OUT" conference. Besides this, General Comment 26 (GC-26) of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is the formal name for it. 

children seek ecological rights

According to the ANI report, on Saturday, ten proposals in all have been made by the young brains and might be considered when determining the parameters of their demand. In order to incorporate their "earth rights," they have also included an amendment in the constitutions of India and other countries. 

Another substantial demand is to improve the rules governing access to information in each nation while also ensuring that young people have the freedom to do so and are safe while doing so. 

Furthermore, the youngsters come from disadvantaged backgrounds, ranging from highland Himachal and the North-East to coastal Tamil Nadu. Some of them came from smoggy metropolitan parts of the nation, and they have all joined together to ensure that their voices and concerns are given equal weight and that they are able to use their ecological rights to directly alter the situation. 

The proposals have been presented in their "NINEISMINE ADvocal report" cum opinion poll by around 3,500 child citizens. 900 participants and more than 20 international environmentalists looked at these throughout the course of the three-day online event. Better green education, green information, budgets, as well as green policies are among their requests. They also want to be involved in the campaign for government accountability and grievance redressal, ANI reported.  

PRATYeK, a child rights group with a focus on "Presence and Right-relations for Advocacy and Training of the Young in Earth-rights and Kids-rights," has organised "NINEISMINE," an advocacy project of, for, and by children. 

Notably, given the recent spate of extreme weather events, including typhoons in Bangladesh, catastrophic floods in Pakistan, heatwaves in Europe, wildfires in North America, dry rivers in China, and droughts in Africa, this year's COP conference is especially important. 

(Image: AP)