Who are Children and Youth?
Whereas definitions of youth may vary, even within the United Nations Common System (UNCS), children are defined, under the legally binding provisions of one of the most universally ratified UN-deposited international treaty, the Convention of the Rights of the Child, with 196 Parties, as:
“every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier”[1].
Yet, for statistical and analytical purposes, youth (or “young people”) is generally considered, at the UN Secretariat - without prejudice to national definitions by UN Member States or to regional contexts - as comprising individuals between the ages of 15 and 24 years. This is a standard definition used across all global datasets for demography, employment, education, and health, being also formally endorsed by the UN General Assembly in its resolution 36/28 on, and granting high priority to, the “International Youth Year 1985: Participation, Development, Peace”, adopted on 13 November 1981.
Why Protecting and Empowering Children & Youth?
Children and young people can be formidable agents of change for action now and mostly for the future, including as future leaders, for our planet and its human beings, in achieving better protection of human health and the environment against the harmful effects of hazardous chemicals and wastes.
Moreover, it is scientifically evidenced and recognised under the BRS Conventions that children and youth may be among the individuals or groups disproportionately affected by exposure to hazardous chemicals and wastes and by their unsound management, due to their heightened health or other vulnerability and therefore to the unequal distribution of health or environmental risks. Unsustainable or unsound use, trade, production, management of chemicals and wastes at the global, regional and local levels, may continue to expose many individuals or groups, particularly the most vulnerable ones, in developed and in developing countries, to greater pollution, loss of biodiversity, climate change and long-term adverse health or environment impacts.
Vision and Context
As the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions seek to foster a future where the environment and all human beings, in particular children and youth, are protected from the adverse impacts of hazardous chemicals and wastes. To that end, their implementation also requires children and youth to participate meaningfully; and for this purpose, they need to be adequately equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills, and values to advance the sound management of chemicals and wastes throughout their lives as present and future agents of change.
Action for and by Children and Youth under the BRS Conventions and their implementation, including by Parties, the BRS Secretariat and all other relevant stakeholders, aligns also with:
- The vision: embedded in the overarching UN Secretariat’s Strategy for children and youth and its current ‘Phase 2’: the ‘Youth2030’[2] , it was initiated by the Secretary-General in 2018. In this context, to tangibly integrate children and youth, not only in discussions but also in action, is essential, through e.g. enhanced participation, inclusion, communication, etc., in order to achieve enhanced protection, including on environmental and health issues, and, in the end to “Leave No one Behind” (LNOB) as per the UN 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.
- Among relevant milestones: the ‘Pact for the Future’ (2024)[3], a landmark international agreement; the “UN Core Principles for Meaningful Youth Participation” (March 2026), co-created through consultations with Member States, UN entities, young people and youth organisations; and the UN Environment Assembly seventh session (UNEA 7) Resolution on “Enhancing meaningful participation of youth in environmental processes, and enhancing environmental education” (December 2025).
Under the above umbrella, implementation of the BRS Conventions would need to ensure, in line with their provisions and consistent with the decisions of the Conferences of the Parties (COPs), that children and young people have the tools, voice and power to shape the decisions that affect their lives and futures. Work pertaining to the BRS Conventions relies on children and youth too.
‘Co-action’ with and for children and youth, across UN entities, including UNEP and its Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEAs), such as the BRS Conventions, is essential and implies that children and young people are not only receivers of protection but also active or even proactive participants, collaborators, as agents of changes, whose actions are key, whose participation should be meaningful and inclusive, whose representation effective, putting communication and education in a pivotal role, in e.g. policy development, implementation, review, decision-making, etc., including on environmental and health issues. This is also to resonate with and give force to the “human right to a clean, safe, healthy and sustainable environment” for all human beings as recognised by the UN General Assembly in 2022[4].
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