Members of the Child Rights Coalition Asia and CRC Coalition Philippines Secretariat joined the Global Climate Strike kick-off led by 350 Pilipinas on September 20, 2019, Friday, held at the University of the Philippines College of Science Amphitheater, Diliman, Quezon City. The Coalition demands climate justice and calls for the upholding of children’s right to a healthy environment.

Around 600 children, youth, students, and adults from schools, universities, and civil society organizations together formed a human globe while emphasizing that “there is no Planet B.” The 350 Pilipinas’ video clip on the climate strike can be viewed here:

To collectively understand the climate crisis, CRC Asia and its members and network organizations had a dedicated session on children’s rights and the environment at the 5th Asia-Pacific Partnership Meeting of Children’s Rights Coalition and Networks held in Bangkok, Thailand on July 23-25, 2019.

What is the relationship between children and their environment?[1]

• The UN CRC sets an international legal framework stressing that children are human beings and individuals with their own rights. The convention also says that childhood is separate from adulthood, and lasts until age 18; it is a special, protected time, in which children must be allowed to grow, learn, play, develop, and flourish with dignity.
• The environment is where a child lives, grows, and develops. His/her environment or his/her living conditions, community spaces, housing, geographical location affect his/her health and well-being.
• The conditions of the environment in which children are born, live, learn, interact, and play impact a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes,[2] affecting children’s rights, including the right to a healthy environment, water, culture, and food.
• The environment is the natural world. It includes plants, animals, and people. Children need access to the natural world in order to holistically develop and flourish.
• The damage of the natural resources affects, all the more, the future generations. With this, the attention that the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda puts on addressing environmental degradation makes much more sense. “Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” as defined by the Brundtland Report. In relation to the conservation of all life on earth, Professor David MacDonald of Oxford University said that “without biodiversity, there is no future for humanity.”

[1] Some portions lifted from Mr. Jonas Schubert (July 2019). Children‘s Rights and the Environment or Children’s right to a healthy environment – Does it matter?

[2] World Health Organization (n.d.) Health Impact Assessment: The Determinants of Health. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/hia/evidence/doh/en/