One in four children in Portugal is affected by extreme drought, UNICEF Portugal warned on Monday, after the Committee on the Rights of the Child released guidelines on the climate crisis.
“In Portugal, one in four children is affected by the severe and extreme drought the country is facing,” Beatriz Imperatori, Executive Director of UNICEF Portugal, said in a statement.
According to Imperatori, the state must guarantee the right to a “human, healthy and ecologically balanced” living environment for all children, in accordance with Article 66 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic.
“Today we call on political decision-makers, the public sector, all businesses and institutions and civil society to put children at the center of environmental strategies and to empower them as agents of change. change.” , he emphasized.
As a result of the worsening climate crisis, the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of the Child has today published official guidance under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by 196 states, including Portugal, on what to do must be done to respect children’s right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
“General Comment No. 26 on Children’s Rights and the Environment, with a Special Focus on Climate Change” addresses “the impacts of the climate crisis, biodiversity collapse and widespread pollution, and outlines countermeasures to improve the lives and prospects of children’s lives to protect, strengthening the principle of intergenerational equality and future generations”.
The directive indicates that “it is essential to ensure access to adequate (resilient) housing, food security and safety for all children, to reduce vulnerabilities caused by natural phenomena such as extreme weather events, environmental degradation or loss of biodiversity” .
Countries that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child are encouraged to take immediate action, including phasing out coal, oil and natural gas and moving to renewable energy sources, reporting periodically on progress made in protecting of children’s environmental rights.
“With General Comment No. 26, the Committee on the Rights of the Child not only amplifies the voice of children, but also clearly defines their rights with regard to the environment that Member States must respect, protect and fulfill… urgently! said committee member Philip Jaffé.
The document helps interpret the countries’ obligations under the Paris Agreement.
“States are responsible not only for protecting the rights of children from immediate harm, but for foreseeable violations of their rights in the future as a result of states’ actions – or their inaction – in the present,” he emphasizes, recalling that “they may be held responsible for environmental damage within and beyond their borders.
According to UNICEF, about one billion children currently live in countries that are at extremely high risk of climate change impacts and more than 99% are exposed to climate and environmental pressures.
UNICEF recalled that two billion people live without access to clean water, 600 million of them children.
“By 2040, nearly 600 million children are expected to live in areas of extremely high water stress – one in four children under the age of 18,” he added.
Source: DN
