Legal Empowerment to Advance Climate and Environmental Justice
for Children in East Asia and the Pacific
Highlights
Over 580 million children across the East Asia and Pacific region are vulnerable to the global environmental and climate crisis. These children, and future generations of children, will grow up living with the consequences. Recognizing the challenges, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO) launched a region-wide study of the status of children’s empowerment to voice their concerns, seek remedies when they suffer environmental harm, and take action on their own.
The report of the study considers how to promote the legal empowerment of children to enjoy their rights to a healthy environment. Recognising that children typically have limited access to formal judicial mechanisms, the report also reflects on how children can advance their rights through non-legal pathways. Case studies from across the Region are incorporated into the report to demonstrate how children’s legal empowerment can be expressed and achieved in practice.
The report concludes with targeted recommendations for children and young people, caregivers, civil society actors, intergovernmental organisations and States, to support the legal empowerment of children to advance climate and environmental justice. The concluding recommendations set out a four-step legal empowerment strategy that encompasses education, expression, access to remedy, and safety.
