They are no longer just protests or calls to act against global warming at the UN: 16 young people, including Greta Thunberg, announced on Monday a new offensive, this time on the legal ground, denouncing the inaction of leaders as a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
While world leaders signed this convention 30 years ago, pledging to protect the health and rights of children, “they have not kept their promises,” said the Swedish activist, outside the UN climate summit in which she denounced again the inaction to the climatic emergency.
Almost all countries – except the United States – have ratified this convention to protect the health and rights of children. But
we have all been violated and denied our rights. Our future is being destroyed,”
added Alexandria Villasenor, nicknamed the American Greta Thunberg.
In practice, this unprecedented denunciation of 16 young people between 8 and 17 years of age addresses five polluting countries: France, Germany, Argentina, Brazil and Turkey. The group comes from 12 different countries and has the help of the international law firm Hausfeld and the blessing of UNICEF.
The complaint is part of an unknown “optional protocol” of the convention: since 2014 it authorizes children to file a complaint with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, if they believe that their rights were denied.
The committee is supposed to investigate the alleged violations and then make recommendations to the states to stop them. The recommendations are not binding, but the 44 countries that have ratified this protocol agree in principle to respect them, explained Michael Hausfeld, who expects guidelines to be issued in the next 12 months.
The five countries included in the complaint have ratified the protocol, but they are among the most polluting in the world and are influential in the select club of rich G20 countries.
That is why they were included, instead of the United States, China or India, the largest emitters in the world, but have not ratified this protocol.
The old industrial countries, such as France and Germany, are responsible for a large historical part of emissions, although they are not currently the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, argued the Hausfeld cabinet.