Lisa Ruston

The Committee on the rights of the child, monitors implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by UN States parties. It is currently drafting a general comment on children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change. The Committee invited all interested stakeholders to comment on its draft general comment. The Global Pact Coalition submitted a comment.

The fourth Summit of the Council of Europe is an important opportunity to strengthen European rights. While this summit is taking place in reaction to the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, other topics will be discussed, such as strengthening pan-European cooperation or combating violence against women. The upcoming hearings before the ECtHR on the obligations of Member States regarding CO2 emissions and global warming illustrate the importance of putting the right to a healthy environment on the agenda of this Summit.

After almost years of talks, UN Member States have finally reached a historic deal to protect international waters. Almost 2/3 of the world’s ocean lies outside national boundaries & only 1.2% is protected. This deal is decisive in enforcing the 30×30 pledge.

Vanuatu and 14 other States published the final draft of the UNGA resolution to request an International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on the human rights obligations of States in the context of climate change. They are calling Member States to co-sponsor the resolution before its vote in a plenary session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). 105 UN member states are already co-sponsoring the resolution prior to its vote in the UN General Assembly plenary session.

This brief was submitted in February 2023 to the UNFCCC in response to the call for ‘Views on the approach to the consideration of outputs component of the first global stocktake’ by some member organizations of the Human Rights and Climate Change Working Group.