GENEVA (11 October 2021) – In a historic ruling on the harmful effects of climate change on children’s rights, the Child
Rights Committee has found that a State party can be held responsible for the negative impact of its carbon emissions on
the rights of children both within and outside its territory.
The Child Rights Committee (CRC) published its ruling – the first such ruling by an international body – today, after examining a petition filed
by 16 children from 12 countries against Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey in 2019. The children claimed
that these five countries, which were historic emitters and had recognised the competence of the Committee to receive
petitions, had failed to take necessary preventive measures to protect and fulfil children’s rights to life, health, and
culture.
The children also argued that the climate crisis is not an abstract future threat and that the 1.1°C increase in global
average temperature since pre-industrial times has already caused devastating heat waves, fostering the spread of
infectious diseases, forest fires, extreme weather patterns, floods, and sea-level rise. As children, they claimed, they
were among the most affected by these life-threatening impacts, both mentally and physically.
The Committee held five oral hearings with the children’s legal representatives, the States’ representatives and third
party intervenors between May and September 2021. It also heard the children directly. In this historic ruling, the
Committee found that the States concerned exercised jurisdiction over those children.
“Emitting States are responsible for the negative impact of the emissions originating in their territory on the rights
of children – even those children who may be located abroad. The collective nature of the causes of climate change must
not absolve a State from its individual responsibility,” said Committee member Ann Skelton. “It is a matter of
sufficiently proving that there is a causal link between the harm and the States’ acts or omissions,” Skelton added.
In this case, the Committee determined that Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey had effective control over the
activities that are the sources of emissions that contribute to the reasonably foreseeable harm to children outside
their territories. It concluded that a sufficient causal link had been established between the harm alleged by the 16
children and the acts or omissions of the five States for the purposes of establishing jurisdiction, and that the
children had sufficiently justified that the harm that they had personally suffered was significant.
The Committee was, however, unable to adjudicate on whether the States parties in this specific case had violated their
obligations to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The complaints procedures require that petitions are only admissible after the complainants have taken the claim to
the national courts and already exhausted legal remedies that may be available and effective in the countries concerned
before bringing their complaint to the Committee.
The decision can be found here.
The Committee’s open letter to the children and simplified version of the decision can be accessed here.