Submission of the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland.
Table of contents
Introduction
We welcome the publication of the draft General Comment on Children’s Rights and the Environment, with a Special Focus on Climate Change, and are pleased to provide our comments on it. Methods of engagement used to inform our response include:
- Engagement with children in early years nursery and primary 1 aged 0-6 years to increase the participation of babies, infants, and young children.
- Recommendations from our Young Advisors aged 14 – 17, who undertook a year long climate project as part of the European Network of Young Advisors (ENYA).
- Online activity, inviting young children to tell us in one word, or by picture or sound, why the environment matters to them. These words and ideas have been combined and turned into a single image, the front page of this report. The image has been shared with all the children and nurseries who contributed.
The primary focus of this response will be to reflect the views of children aged 0-6 as they are often underrepresented in work on climate change.
Resources for download
Here you can download or browse our submission below.
We would like to thank all the children and young people who took part in the activities to inform this response. The staff team at St Patricks Primary School and Family Learning Centre for their support in directly engaging with children, and the National Day Nurseries Association, Scotland, for their methodology guidance.
Our findings were informed through direct engagement with children in early years settings, our young advisors, as well as through a national activity where we asked children to send in words, pictures, thoughts, sounds, and feelings on the environment and natural world. We collated all the responses and worked with illustrator Dylan Gibson to produce the fantastic artwork available below.
Download Report PDF
Download Illustration
