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	Violence against children reaches unprecedented levels worldwide by Najat Maalla M’Jid Special Representative on Violence against Children   Oct. 2024   Violence against children remains a pervasive global issue, with up to a billion children vulnerable to various forms of abuse.   Najat Maalla M’Jid, United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children says that violence against children had reached unprecedented levels.   “Millions of children worldwide are victims of physical, sexual, and psychological violence both online and offline, including child labor, child marriage, female genital mutilation, gender-based violence, trafficking, bullying, and cyberbullying, among many others,” she said in a newly relased report.   According to the report many more children are vulnerable to violence due to what it calls “multidimensional poverty.”   Half of the world’s children, around one billion, are identified as “at high risk” of being affected by the climate crisis. One in six young people worldwide are also growing up in conflict zones.   “This is a pivotal moment. Violence against children has reached unprecedented levels, caused by multifaceted and interconnected crises,”, Ms. M’Jid said.   The vulnerability of children to violence is a worldwide issue, transcending geographical and socioeconomic boundaries.   “The problem currently is that no country is immune, no child is immune. In all countries, we are finding many forms of violence,” Ms. M’Jid stated, adding that “you can have the same child who is victim of various forms of violence in various settings.”   According to the report, nearly 400 million children under five regularly endure psychological aggression and physical punishment at home.   Figures released by the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, ahead of International Day of the Girl Child on 11 October, estimate that more than 370 million girls and women alive today, or one in eight, experienced rape or sexual assault before the age of 18.   When ‘non-contact’ forms of sexual violence, such as online or verbal abuse are included, the number of girls and women affected rises to 650 million, according to UNICEF.   Ms. M’Jid expressed particular concern about online child sexual exploitation.   “The issue is really big”, warned Ms. M’Jid, with “the increase of internet connectivity among children and a rise in online predators”.   Cyberbullying also emerged as a significant issue, with 15 per cent of children worldwide reporting victimisation. The Special Representative noted that the issue is a complex problem to address. “It’s not an easy task to resolve because you have three pieces to take into account. The victims, the bullies and the bystanders”.   The report reveals that 160 million children are still engaged in child labour “a form of violence against children,” according to Ms. M’Jid. “Children should be in school, not working.”   She further emphasised the interconnected nature of different forms of violence. “Many children who are victims of child labour are also victims of trafficking, smuggling and sexual exploitation”.   The report highlights the severe consequences of violence against children. “It has a long-lasting impact on children’s mental health. We see increased rates of suicide, behavioural disorders, eating disorder, drug addiction, despair and post-traumatic stress disorder. It affects their education, and learning”.   http://news.un.org/en/story/2024/10/1155566   10 Oct. 2024   Growth in online child sexual exploitation and abuse must be urgently addressed   300 million children have been affected by online sexual exploitation and abuse over the past 12 months. That’s one shocking revelation from a new report launched by the UN’s Special Representative working to end violence against children.   More and more young children are getting online but that’s also true for predators and sexual offenders, said Najat Maalla M’Jid, adding that the lack of child safety online needs to be urgently addressed. In an interview with UN News’s Khaled Mohamed, Ms. Maalla M’Jid highlighted that violence against children is increasing in all fronts, from cyberspace to child labour: http://news.un.org/en/audio/2024/10/1155571   http://endviolenceagainstchildrenconference.org http://www.savethechildren.net/news/silence-not-solution-children-demand-end-violence-historic-global-conference Visit the related web page
	Judge rules young people have right to a safe and healthy environment by UN Child Rights Committee, agencies   18 Dec. 2024   USA: Montana Supreme Court affirms landmark Youth-Led Climate Decision, upholding Constitutional Rights to a Safe and Livable Climate. (Our Children's Trust)   In a historic ruling today, the Montana Supreme Court affirmed 6-1 the decision of the district court in the landmark case, Held v. State of Montana, siding with the 16 youth plaintiffs who had sued the state over its promotion of fossil fuel extraction and its failure to consider climate change impacts in its decision-making.   This ruling, the first of its kind from a state supreme court, affirms the district court’s ruling that the state’s acts in perpetuating a fossil fuel energy system with blind eyes violated the youth plaintiffs’ fundamental constitutional rights to a clean and healthful environment, dignity, and safety, reinforcing the growing legal momentum behind youth-led climate justice movements.   District Court Judge Kathy Seeley’s August 2023 decision, upheld today, made Held v. State of Montana the first youth-led constitutional climate lawsuit in U.S. history to go to trial and secure a victory.   In her ruling, Judge Seeley stated: "Each additional ton of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere exacerbates impacts to the climate. Plaintiffs' injuries will grow increasingly severe and irreversible without science-based actions to address climate change." Judge Seeley also ruled that the fundamental right to a clean and healthful environment enshrined in Montana’s Constitution incorporates the climate system and that Montana's environment is unconstitutionally degraded due to the current level of greenhouse gases concentrations and climate impacts.   The Montana Supreme Court today upheld these findings, ruling that state laws prohibiting the consideration of greenhouse gas emissions or climate impacts during fossil fuel permitting decisions and laws preventing constitutional remedies in court were unconstitutional.   Today’s ruling requires the state to ensure it considers the environmental and public health consequences, and significantly the harm to children, of each proposed fossil fuel project, marking a turning point in Montana’s energy policy.   “This is a monumental moment for Montana, our youth, and the future of our planet,” said Nate Bellinger, lead counsel to the plaintiffs. “Today, the Montana Supreme Court has affirmed the constitutional rights of youth to a safe and livable climate, confirming that the future of our children cannot be sacrificed for fossil fuel interests..".   http://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/press-releases   May 2024   Children tell Inter-American Court of Human Rights how climate change is affecting them in historic hearing. (Save the Children, agencies)   Two teenage girls will give first-hand accounts on how climate change is negatively impacting the rights of children during a historic hearing in Brazil today, drawing on their own experiences and discussions with peers across the Americas.   Joselim, 17, from Peru, and Camila, 14, from El Salvador, will tell the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) how the climate crisis is depriving them of their rights as outlined in the Convention of the Rights of the Child, such as education, survival and development.   They will tell the Court how extreme weather such as heatwaves and heavy rain is decimating agriculture and driving up food prices, contributing to a health and nutrition crisis in children and families. They will also highlight how the impacts of climate change can disrupt learning for children, with increasingly adverse weather conditions such as floods and landslides preventing children from getting to school.   The hearing forms part of the second phase of an historic inquiry which started last year and was instigated by Colombia and Chile, which asked the court to set out what legal responsibilities states have to tackle climate change and to stop it breaching people’s human rights.   This “advisory opinion” could be highly influential, setting the framework for future legal action.   Joselim, 17, said: "Looking after Mother Earth is urgent because time is against us. Children, adolescents, young adults, and humanity in general should enjoy a healthy, clean, dignified, and safe environment. This requires change to rebuild a conscious society, in which children and adolescents are active participants. We should take care of the earth we live on and preserve humanity. My call to action for authorities is to respect our Mother Earth, preserve it, and take care of it.   “We need leaders to invest in the recovery of agriculture, in education, and in environmental plans and public policies with adequate resources and personnel. We need them to promote recycling, using renewable energy, and adopting agricultural production techniques that are friendlier to nature so that more children and adolescents can enjoy a healthy, clean, and safe environment.   Camila,14, said: “The Court must listen to and learn from children and adolescents about how we are living through the climate crisis and its impact on our rights. Climate change is affecting our right to health in many ways, for example, causing deaths and illnesses from extreme heat waves, storms, and floods, toxic air pollution, droughts, food shortages, the spread of diseases like cholera and dengue fever, and serious infections from increased animal diseases that are transmitted to people. All this, in turn, generates poverty and displacement.”   The hearing is taking place following the submission to the Court of an Amicus Curiae brief in which an organisation can set out legal arguments and recommendations. This was initiated by child-led networks, Molacnnats and Red Latinoamericana de Ninas, Ninos y Adolescentes (REDNNyAs), both of which are partners of Save the Children. The process was also supported by Peruvian organisation Peruvian Society of SPDA and facilitated by Save the Children through its regional civil society strengthening programme.   It follows months of consultations with children across the region on how their rights are being eroded by the impacts of climate change and on the measures that States should adopt to protect human rights in the face of the climate crisis, with special emphasis on the right to health, education and adequate food.   http://www.savethechildren.net/news/children-tell-inter-american-court-human-rights-how-climate-change-affecting-them-historic http://wmo.int/media/news/global-temperature-record-streak-continues-climate-change-makes-heatwaves-more-extreme http://www.unicef.org/blog/urgent-need-child-centred-loss-and-damage-fund http://www.unicef.org/innocenti/reports/loss-and-damage-finance-children http://www.endchildhoodpoverty.org/publications-feed/climatechange http://reliefweb.int/report/world/climate-changed-child-childrens-climate-risk-index-supplement-enar http://www.savethechildren.net/news/more-half-pakistan-s-school-age-children-will-be-out-school-due-extreme-heat http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/pdf/born-into-the-climate-crisis.pdf/ http://www.unicef.org/eap/press-releases/sweltering-heat-across-east-asia-and-pacific-puts-childrens-lives-risk-unicef http://www.unicef.org/reports/climate-changed-child http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/climate-change-urgent-threat-pregnant-women-and-children   Sep. 2023   Urgent action by States needed to tackle climate change, says UN Committee in guidance on children’s rights and environment. (OHCHR)   The United Nations Child Rights Committee has published authoritative guidance on children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change. The guidance specifies the legislative and administrative measures States should urgently implement to address the adverse effects of environmental degradation and climate change on the enjoyment of children’s rights, and to ensure a clean, healthy, and sustainable world now and to preserve it for future generations.   The Committee has adopted its guidance, formally known as General Comment No. 26, after two rounds of consultation with States, national human rights institutions, international organizations, civil society, thematic experts and children.   The Committee received 16,331 contributions from children in 121 countries; children shared and reported on the negative effects of environmental degradation and climate change on their lives and communities and asserted their right to live in a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.   “Children are architects, leaders, thinkers and changemakers of today’s world. Our voices matter, and they deserve to be listened to,” said 17-year-old Kartik, a climate and child rights activist from India and one of the Committee’s child advisers. “General Comment No. 26 is the instrument that will help us understand and exercise our rights in the face of environmental and climate crises,” he added.   “This general comment is of great and far-reaching legal significance,” said Ann Skelton, Chair of the Committee, emphasising, “as it details States’ obligations under the Child Rights Convention to address environmental harms and guarantee that children are able to exercise their rights. This encompasses their rights to information, participation, and access to justice to ensure that they will be protected from and receive remedies for the harms caused by environmental degradation and climate change.”   The general comment clarifies how children’s rights apply to environmental protection and underscores that children have the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. This right is implicit in the Convention and directly linked to, in particular, the rights to life, survival and development, the highest attainable standard of health, an adequate living standard, and education. This right is also necessary for the full enjoyment of children’s rights.   The general comment further asserts that States shall protect children against environmental damage from commercial activities. It specifies that States are obliged to provide legislative, regulative and enforcement frameworks to ensure that businesses respect children’s rights, and should require businesses to undertake due diligence regarding children’s rights and the environment. Immediate steps should be taken when children are identified as victims to prevent further harm to their health and development and to repair the damage done.   The Committee observes that, in many countries, children encounter barriers to attaining legal standing due to their status, limiting their means of asserting their rights in relation to the environment. States should therefore provide pathways for children to access justice for violations of their rights relating to environmental harm, including through complaints mechanisms that are child-friendly, gender-responsive and disability-inclusive. In addition, mechanisms should be available for claims of imminent or foreseeable harms and past or current violations of children’s rights.   With regard to climate change, the general comment underlines that States must take all necessary measures to protect against harms to children’s rights related to climate change caused by business enterprises, such as by ensuring that businesses rapidly reduce their emissions.   The guidance also emphasises the urgent and collective need for developed States to address the present climate finance gap, including through grants rather than loans to developing States to avoid negative impacts on children’s rights. It also notes that climate finance is overly slanted toward mitigation at the cost of adaptation and loss and damage measures, which has discriminatory effects on children who live in areas where more adaptation measures are needed.   The Committee urges immediate collective States actions to tackle environmental harm and climate change.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/08/urgent-action-states-needed-tackle-climate-change-says-un-committee-guidance http://news.un.org/en/story/2023/08/1140122 http://childrightsenvironment.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Press-Release_GC26.pdf   14 Aug. 2023   Judge rules young people have right to a safe and healthy environment. (Our Children's Trust)   “Today, for the first time in U.S. history, a court ruled on the merits of a case that the government violated the constitutional rights of children through laws and actions that promote fossil fuels, ignore climate change, and disproportionately imperil young people,” said Julia Olson, Chief Legal Counsel and Executive Director with Our Children’s Trust.   “In a sweeping win for our clients, the Honorable Judge Kathy Seeley declared Montana’s fossil fuel-promoting laws unconstitutional and enjoined their implementation. As fires rage in the West, fueled by fossil fuel pollution, today’s ruling in Montana is a game-changer that marks a turning point in this generation’s efforts to save the planet from the devastating effects of human-caused climate chaos. This is a huge win for Montana, for youth, for democracy, and for our climate. More rulings like this will certainly come.”   “Today we witnessed democracy in action as Montana’s judiciary fulfilled its constitutional duty to hold the political branches accountable for actions exacerbating the climate crisis and causing harm to the state’s youngest and most vulnerable people. This is what climate justice in the courts, and protecting the constitutional rights of our childrens’ right to a safe climate looks like,” said Nate Bellinger, senior staff attorney with Our Children’s Trust.   In an historic first, Judge Kathy Seeley in the First Judicial District Court of Montana ruled wholly in favor of the 16 youth plaintiffs in Held v. State of Montana, declaring that the state of Montana violated the youth’s constitutional rights, including their rights to equal protection, dignity, liberty, health and safety, and public trust, which are all predicated on their right to a clean and healthful environment.   The court invalidated as unconstitutional and enjoined Montana laws that promoted fossil fuels and required turning a blind eye to climate change.   The court ruled the youth plaintiffs had proven their standing to bring the case by showing significant injuries, the government’s substantial role in causing them, and that a judgment in their favor would change the government’s conduct.   In a 103-page decision, Judge Seeley’s Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Order set forth critical evidentiary and legal precedent for the right of youth to a safe climate, including these highlights:   * "Each additional ton of GHGs [greenhouse gases] emitted into the atmosphere exacerbates impacts to the climate."   * “Every additional ton of GHG emissions exacerbates Plaintiffs’ injuries and risks locking in irreversible climate injuries.”   * “Plaintiffs’ injuries will grow increasingly severe and irreversible without science-based actions to address climate change.”   * “Plaintiffs have proven that as children and youth, they are disproportionately harmed by fossil fuel pollution and climate impacts.”   * “The State authorizes fossil fuel activities without analyzing GHGs or climate impacts, which result in GHG emissions in Montana and abroad that have caused and continue to exacerbate anthropogenic climate change.”   * The order provides meaningful redress to plaintiffs’ injuries because “the amount of additional GHG emissions emitted into the climate system today and in the coming decade will impact the long-term severity of the heating and the severity of Plaintiffs’ injuries.”   * “The Defendants have the authority under the statutes by which they operate to protect Montana's environment and natural resources, protect the health and safety of Montana's youth, and alleviate and avoid climate impacts by limiting fossil fuel activities that occur in Montana when the MEPA analysis shows that those activities are resulting in degradation or other harms which violate the Montana Constitution.”   * “Montana's contributions to GHG emissions can be measured incrementally and cumulatively both in terms of immediate local effects and by mixing in the atmosphere and contributing to global climate change and an already destabilized climate system.”   * “Montana's GHG contributions are not de minimis but are nationally and globally significant. Montana's GHG emissions cause and contribute to climate change and Plaintiffs' injuries and reduce the opportunity to alleviate Plaintiffs' injuries.”   * Court finds that Earth Energy Imbalance is the most critical scientific metric in determining climate stability and includes a graphic showing that 350 ppm was the level of CO2 where the Earth was last within energy balance.   Allowing consideration of climate change “would provide the clear information needed to conform their decision-making to the best science and their constitutional duties and constraints, and give them the necessary information to deny permits for fossil fuel activities when inconsistent with protecting Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.”   “This is a landmark decision establishing enforceable principles of intergenerational justice,” said attorney Roger Sullivan, of McGarvey Law. “Simply stated, the government elected by this generation must abide its obligation to pass on a stable climate system to future generations.”   “It is incredibly gratifying to see a Montana court recognize the effects the state’s harmful energy policies have on young people and all Montanans,” said Barbara Chillcott, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center.   “Judge Seeley’s ruling underscores the reality that Montana’s government is actively working to undermine our constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment. Despite the state’s attempts to avoid any responsibility, the court’s decision affirms that the state has the ‘discretion to deny permits for fossil fuel activities that would result in unconstitutional levels of GHG emissions, unconstitutional degradation and depletion of Montana’s environment and natural resources, or infringement of the constitutional rights of Montanans and Youth Plaintiffs.’   This decision sets important precedent for other constitutional climate cases in the U.S., and, most importantly, gives these youth plaintiffs some hope for a better future.”   Trial in this landmark youth-led climate lawsuit - the first ever constitutional climate trial in U.S. history - ran from June 12 to June 20, and included testimony from 10 of plaintiffs’ expert witnesses as well as 12 of the 16 young Montanans who filed the suit over three years ago.   The youth plaintiffs claimed their lives and liberties were at stake, including their constitutional rights to a clean and healthful environment, to equal protection of the law, to individual dignity, and to safety, health, and happiness - and the responsibility of their state government to cease its actions that exacerbate the climate crisis, degrade Montana’s environment and natural resources, and harm the youth.   The youth plaintiffs in this case did not not seek money in their lawsuit. Instead, today’s ruling declared that state laws prohibiting Montana agencies from considering climate change or greenhouse gas emissions when permitting fossil fuel activities were unconstitutional.. http://tinyurl.com/2k5r4pj9   http://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/press-releases http://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/first-of-its-kind-legal-ruling-favors-youth-in-montana-climate-case/ http://theconversation.com/montana-kids-win-historic-climate-lawsuit-heres-why-it-could-set-a-powerful-precedent-207907 http://climate.law.columbia.edu/news/sabin-center-staff-weigh-held-v-montana-case http://climate.law.columbia.edu/news/sabin-center-unep-release-global-climate-litigation-report-2023-status-review http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/08/ruling-us-climate-lawsuit-historic-human-rights-based-precedent/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2023/08/about-our-human-rights-us-youths-win-landmark-climate-case http://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/08/14/youths-win-montana-climate-trial/   * 27 Sep. 2023: Youth-Led Climate Case begins at European Human Rights Court - Six Portuguese young people are suing the governments of 33 countries, arguing their human rights have been violated by a widespread failure to mitigate the climate crisis:   http://youth4climatejustice.org/ http://www.ciel.org/news/climate-inaction-discriminates-against-youth-european-court-is-told/ http://www.ipcc.ch/reports/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-environment/ http://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/climate-litigation-more-doubles-five-years-now-key-tool-delivering http://www.unicef.org/reports/coldest-year-rest-of-their-lives-children-heatwaves   * United Nations General Assembly declares access to clean and healthy environment a universal human right: http://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1123482
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