Over 900 child advocates met online with a view to influencing the 27th Conference of Parties (COP 27) scheduled to begin in Egypt with their demand for a strong UN framework that recognizes the ecological rights of children.
During the 3 day ‘NO COP OUT’ event, students from across India and abroad interacted with side-event organizers and official delegates of` the world’s largest discourse on climate change to propose that their ‘ADvocal report’ with their ten green recommendations underlines these conversations.
Their daring ‘Green Asks’ included an amendment in the Indian and other national constitutions to include their ‘earth rights’. (read the executive summary here : https://bit.ly/3MpbCta)
Kartik Verma, (16) the Indian child delegate scheduled to officially interact with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva at GC26. The COP 27, young delegates chosen by UNICEF India – Elizabeth Eapen and Prachi Shevgaonkar – addressed the gathering and promised to ensure that the children’s ‘ADVocal’ charter on their ecological rights children be genuinely heard at these two historic discourses.
The presence of these young voices reechoes what Ram (16) the child convener of the event’s Core Organizing Team (COT) who stressed that there should be ‘Nothing about us children and our future, without us children and the future.”
The recommendations were captured in their NINEISMINE ADvocal report cum opinion poll by 3500 child citizens. These were reviewed by the 900 participants and over 20 global environmentalists in the course of this 3-day online event. These asks included stronger Green Education, Green Information, Green Policies and Green Budgets and their participation in seeking governance accountability and grievance redressal.
The global speakers applauded the young participants who are standing on the frontlines of local to global ecological discourses while demanding a strong General Comment 26.
Some called for a heart centered connection based on an earth spirituality and interconnection with all members of the wide earth community. Others called for the education that works towards green jobs in future. There was a unanimous call to reduce the financing of fossil industries.
The speakers included Ms. Sanae Okamoto, from The United Nations University Netherlands, Tristan Tyrell from the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Ms. Maja Markus, from the ILO Switzerland, Jasmin Irisha, UNICEF Malaysia, Sanoi Boynoda of the Tajikistan Delegation and Abhinash Mohanty, India from an intergovernmental organization and Sanjay Vasisth representing the Bangladesh Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge.
Naman Sonpar (14) the young founder of ‘HariKoshish’ and child advocate of Save the Children and NINEISMINE, who is selected as a speaker at UN COP 27 Pavilion online platform, stated, ‘Child Rights are earth rights but it’s time to up the conversation to recognize that rights of children (to live, to be heard, to health, to recover, to protection) are indeed those of our Mother Earth too.”
Tom Jones a young teen aged climate change activist from UK who had represented the NINEISMINE’s ERth (Earth Rights) Charter – the precursor to this year’s ADvocal Charter – at COP 26` in Glasgow said, ‘World leaders and developed countries don’t feel the heat and effects of climate change in their over-insulated lifestyles like the millions of children who face the brunt of climate change in their day to day lives.’
NINEISMINE, an advocacy initiative of, for and by the children which is convened by PRATYeK, anchored this consultation along with the World Vision, Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, Vanshakti, Kids for Tiger of the Sanctuary Nature Foundation, Brain Rhyme, INECC, Terres des Hommes, Save the Children and Edmund Rice International. Together they supported the children’s ’27-4-26’ call to ensure that COP 27 sets the stage for a strong General Comment 26.
The speakers of the ‘No COP Out’ event would be engaging with the COP 27 on ground-events to be held at Sharm El Sheikh’, Egypt from 8th to 16th of November. This virtual interaction attempted to bring Egypt to the young child-activists, as most can’tafford to travel to Egypt due to various reasons.
The forum sought to infuse the COP 27 with a discourse on child centric policies and thus become the underlining agenda of COP 27. The young participants hoped to positively influence the present and future of the 2.2 billion child citizens of the earth community and those yet to come.
As Tom Jones (16) from the UK representing the Edmund Rice International network said emphatically, ‘You have not inherited the earth from our ancestors. You have borrowed it from us and the future generations.’
Tejaswini (16) the Prime Minister of the National Inclusive Children’s Parliament (NICP) stated, “We (children) may not be voters, but we will vote with our choices and voices and we will vote with our feet’.
Ruksar (14) the President of the NICP said ‘In short I want all rights for all children and all rights for all including the birds, bees and trees. For only then this world will be, alright for all.’
Sheetal Chaurasia (19) from World Vision said, “World leaders must act to save mother Earth and her rich biodiversity.’ Sheetal added, ‘If not here (at COP 27) then where? If not you, then who? If not now, then when? So deliver on your promises and our demands N.O.W. For there is NO Other Way!’.
Stephane Pouffary from France stated, that “Children must speak as children questioning their elders as what they are doing to control this menace and children are expected to live longer than them”.
Ms. L Cook from Germany added that this is a fight against money and power to save indigenous communities affected by climate change, reducing green-house emission and the need for more public participation in protecting bio-`diversity.
Sanjay Vashist from CANSA, India felt that language was a major hindrance in the progress of the child rights activism. ‘Language must be child friendly and not highly technical and legal bound. So that more children can participate’, he added.
Steve Rocha the director of PRATYeK and the national convener of the NINEISMINE child led advocacy asked the delegates to take the children’s evolving ADvocal charter to all global discourses leading up to the adoption of the General Comment 26 and the UN Global Goals ‘Summit of the future’ to be held in New York in 2023.
The forum will be called IN-M-COP replicating the popular school based Model United Nations (MUN). The prefix ‘IN’ contrasts the MUNs in its aspiration to draw in international voices while insuring that it is inclusive of voices of vulnerable children. It would also surpass standard MUNs by being a platform to advocate for and lobby with Governments of the world for a strong GC 26.
