North America Consultation

The Right of Children and Youth to a Healthy Environment: Building an Agenda for Justice, Equity and Empowerment

In North America, as elsewhere, children’s rights are facing unprecedented and intersecting threats due to the catastrophic socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unfolding environmental and climate emergency.

From the inextricably linked climate and biodiversity crises, to air and water pollution, deforestation, mining, pesticides and waste, the breadth and diversity of environmental challenges confronting North America is both astounding and sobering. No group is more vulnerable to these forms of environmental harms and injustices than children and young people, especially those facing intersecting inequities linked to race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation and other characteristics. Social, racial, and environmental justice are deeply connected, as the most disadvantaged populations tend to be those most affected by environmental catastrophes and most marginalized in public policy decision-making.

At the same time, as children and youth have proven beyond doubt, they have crucial perspectives, expertise, and capacity to be powerful agents of change.

As countries seek to emerge from the acute phase of the COVID-19 crisis, it is essential that we build back better, and more sustainably, placing children’s right to a healthy environment at the heart of ‘green’ recovery plans, and climate and environmental policies and action more broadly. 

In Spring 2021, the Children’s Environmental Rights Initiative (CERI) is partnering with the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF), the International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD) and others to host the first ever virtual intergenerational consultation on the right of children and youth to a healthy environment for the North American region, as part of CERI’s series of regional consultations with children and youth across the world.

Intergenerational Advisory Committee

The Intergenerational Advisory Committee is responsible for helping to shape and oversee the North American consultation. The call for applications is CLOSED.

If you are interested in other opportunities related to the consultation or advocating for children’s rights and the environment, please sign up to our Consultation Newsletter and our Action Network.