The Buenos Aires Declaration: first General Comment on Children’s Rights and Climate Change
The Buenos Aires Declaration: first General Comment on Children’s Rights and Climate Change
The lives of children and adolescents are being affected by the environmental damage that characterizes today’s world. This, together with political and economic instability, inequality in countries, food insecurity, health threats, among others, exacerbate the state of vulnerability of children and adolescents.
In this context, the Committee on the Rights of the Child decided to draft a new General Comment (No. 26), related to the Rights of Children and the Environment, with emphasis on Climate Change. In response, Latin America and the Caribbean promoted the First Regional Consultation to contribute to the draft that the Committee on the Rights of the Child is preparing, in accordance with the mandate that emerged in 2021.
The event
The event, held on November 1, 2 and 3, 2022, was attended by various key stakeholders, organized into three working committees: (1) Commission of government specialists and international organizations, of which the Inter-American Children’s Institute was a member, (2) Commission of civil society organizations, and (3) Commission of children and adolescents. These commissions had the task of discussing various topics such as: the effects of climate change on the rights of children and adolescents, the intersectionality of vulnerabilities, the production and access to information, and the obligations of the States, among others.
The working sessions culminated in the drafting of the Declaration of Buenos Aires, a document that marks a milestone in the region and the world, as it is the first in history to include the participation of children and adolescents in the discussion of a relevant topic on the international political agenda, but, above all, a topic of great interest to children and adolescents today.
