ENRICH

The Project

Defending children’s rights in the face of the looming climate crisis requires a holistic, comprehensive, and rights-based approach, which includes protecting their rights to life, survival, and healthy development as well as ensuring their participation in policy- and decision-making. Despite an extensive legal-policy framework regulating child rights and participation, there is still a huge rhetoric-reality gap between theoretical participation principles and concrete, practical realization of children’s meaningful participation in the design and implementation of environmental decisions that greatly affect them. The main goal of our project, Environment, Rights, Children (ENRICH) is to raise awareness of how the climate crisis and children’s rights intersect and to advance children’s right to have a voice in environmental/climate change matters.

The method to attain this goal is to undertake

a) research and stakeholder surveys to assess the current level of awareness of key stakeholders regarding child rights in environmental and climate policymaking

b) a number of national trainings, aimed at educating key environmental stakeholders about child participation rights and methods to enforce them, and

c) two international events to share experiences, research results, and present concrete recommendations to EU policymakers regarding EU guidelines and the practical implementation of child participation policies in climate action.

Our main target groups are environmental and child rights NGOs and activists, environmental educators and NGOs, and official bodies and policy-makers dealing with children and environmental matters.

Project outputs will be international research with data from 7 EU countries, 21 national events, 2 international events, 1 set of advocacy submissions.

The project supports the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child and provides practical support for state parties regarding the implementation of concrete measures.

The project is funded
by the European Union.

The Team

The project team consists of the coordinating beneficiary Justice and Environment and 7 other environmental legal NGOs that are all members of J&E. Hintalovon Foundation being a specialized child rights NGO from Hungary helps the project with its expertise.

Association Justice & Environment, z.s.

J&E was established in 2003 during the enlargement process of the European Union. J&E is a European network of environmental law organizations. Currently J&E has 15 member organizations in total from Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Ukraine. All member organizations are either entirely focused on environmental law or it is one of their topic areas. J&E lawyers are seasoned environmental law experts, experienced within their national legal systems, familiar with challenges faced by their respective communities and well aware of the EU legal framework. Its membership base allows J&E to bridge EU and national issues of environmental law and participation. Patterned on this, J&E analyses the EU system of participation in environmental matters, mainly in a form of comparative legal studies and proposes policy improvements / recommendations to decision-makers.

Webpage: www.justiceandenvironment.org

Responsibilities in the project:

J&E acts as a coordinating beneficiary, taking care of the day-to-day management of the project’s activities, including reporting and financial management.

Team of the project:

Csaba Kiss, Coordinator, info@justiceandenvironment.org, phone +36 1 322 8462

Lubica Mock, Financial Manager, finance@justiceandenvironment.org, phone +420 774 130 730

Kata Dózsa, Expert

Ms. Dózsa serves as a special expert of child rights and participatory rights in the project. She is an adjunct professor and senior associate researcher at the Brussels School of Governance – Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her research focuses on children’s rights and climate justice. She holds a PhD in law (University of Antwerp, 2021); an Advanced Master of Children’s Rights (University of Fribourg and Institute of Kurt Bosch); an LL.M (Pazmany Peter Catholic University); and a Master in Journalism (University of Szeged). She held a postdoctoral status at the University of Antwerp Law and Development Research Group from 2021 to 2023. She is the author of the book “Children as Climate Citizens” (Routledge, 2023), and has numerous publications about children’s rights, the rights of future generations and climate change, including in the 2020 and 2023 editions of the European Yearbook on Human Rights. In 2022, she was awarded the Sustainability Research Award for her contribution to climate change policy-development in Belgium.

BlueLink, Bulgaria

BlueLink is a foundation, registered in public interest in Bulgaria with the mission to uphold civil society, democracy, shared European values and environmental sustainability. BlueLink strives to its purpose by supporting internet networking, public interest journalism, policy advocacy and research. BlueLink’s main fields of activity are in:

maintaining the BlueLink Civic Action Network – a networking, coordination and information exchange hub at www.bluelink.net;
supporting civil society participation, access to information and justice, and stakeholder engagement through strategic use of internet and other activities;
operating a virtual newsroom to publish Evromegdan (in Bulgarian) and BlueLink Stories (in English, for Central and Eastern Europe) as e-magazines for ethical journalism in public interest; and
fostering research and analysis of internet freedom, technological and social change, civil society, democracy and sustainable development, and shaping policies that foster them.

Webpage: https://www.bluelink.net/en

Team of the project:

Pavel Antonov, pavelan@bluelink.net

Plamen Peev, plamen@bluelink.net

Ivan Koutzaroff, ivan@bluelink.net

Zoya Borisova, zoya@bluelink.net

Environmental Management and Law Association, Hungary

Environmental Management and Law Association (EMLA) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working in environmental law and environmental management on national, European and international levels. The main activities of EMLA are public interest environmental legal advice and litigation, environmental legal research, consulting and education, and carrying out of environmental management projects. EMLA is a founding member of The Access Initiative in addition to being a member of the European Environmental Bureau and the Nuclear Transparency Watch. The EMLA Foundation established by the EMLA Association is active in environmental education.

Webpage: www.emla.hu

Team of the project:

Csaba Kiss, drkiss@emla.hu

Ágnes Gajdics, agnes.g@emla.hu

Zsuzsanna Berki, berkizs@emla.hu

Estonian Environmental Law Center, Estonia

Estonian Environmental Law Center (EELC) was founded in 2007 by an environmental NGO Estonian Fund for Nature (ELF) and 3 public interest environmental lawyers. It is an independent expert organization. EELC’s aim is to shape environmental law rules and their application in Estonia in a manner that takes due account of public interests (health and well-being of citizens, biodiversity).

Webpage: www.k6k.ee

Team of the project:

Marilin Palts, marilin@k6k.ee

Merilin Kaalma, merilin@k6k.ee

Tarmo Treimann, tarmo@k6k.ee

Triin Jäädmaa, triin@k6k.ee

Hintalovon Foundation, Hungary

The mission of the Hintalovon Child Rights Foundation is to promote and support the enforcement of the rights of children living in Hungary. Since 2016, we have been working to ensure that every child feels safe and well. Our aim is to draw attention to children’s needs in every aspect of life. Furthermore, we help adults and institutions respond effectively to the needs of children.

We are working to ensure that every child is well and feels safe.

So that children are not subjected to violence.
So that child protection can provide effective help to families in need.
So that children are as safe online as they are in the real world.
So that everyone knows and respects child rights.
So that children’s voices and opinions are heard and valued.

Webpage: https://hintalovon.hu/en/home-2/

Team of the project:

Szilvia Gyurkó, szilvi.gyurko@hintalovon.hu

Ökobüro, Austria

ÖKOBÜRO is the Alliance of the Austrian Environmental Movement.

It consists of 20 Austrian organizations engaged in environmental, nature, and animal protection like GLOBAL 2000 (Friends of the Earth Austria), FOUR PAWS, BirdLife Austria and WWF Austria.

ÖKOBÜRO works politically and legally for environmental protection and the alliance of the environmental movement. We provide our members and other environmental practitioners with our expertise in environmental law, public participation and in solving political problems.

Webpage: https://www.oekobuero.at/en/about/

Team of the project:

Marlene Schaffer, marlene.schaffer@oekobuero.at

Birgit Schmidhuber, birgit.schmidhuber@oekobuero.at

PIC, Slovenia

Legal Center for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment is a non-governmental organisation established in 1997. Primary working areas of PIC can be described as legal protection of the environment and human rights (rights of vulnerable groups as disabled, foreigners and asylum seekers, women victims of violence, socially underprivileged individuals etc.). PIC is active on strategic level (through advocacy and lobbying in legislative procedures, civil initiatives etc.) and on operative/implementation level by offering legal counseling and legal support to individuals and NGOs. One of the main activities is providing comments and recommendations during the adoption of important laws and strategic documents in the field of environmental protection and spatial management and proposing systemic changes in particular towards a better inclusion of the public in decision-making processes and improvements of access to effective legal remedies. PIC is striving for a consistent and correct application of the Aarhus Convention, especially regarding effective exercise of the right to participate of NGOs and the wider public in environmental procedures. In this regard PIC is focusing also on influencing court procedures by filing legal remedies and advocating for their effectiveness. PIC is one of thirteen Slovenian NGOs who have obtained a status of a NGO acting in the public interest in environmental matters on national level.

Webpage: https://pic.si/

Team of the project:

Aljosa Petek, aljosa.petek@pic.si

Luka Strubelj, luka.strubelj@pic.si

UfU, Germany

The Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (UfU) is a German scientific institute and registered non-profit organisation based in Berlin. The main focus of our work is the promotion of democracy and education in environmental protection and resource conservation. Our aim is to strengthen democratic rights of co-determination and participation, so that all people have access to an intact nature and environmental conditions worth living in. At the same time, we are strongly committed to education in schools and run numerous projects on climate neutrality, energy transition and resource conservation in schools throughout Germany and Europe. UfU runs around 60 projects a year and has around 200 members who support our work.

The central themes of our work are environmental law, participation, resource conservation, energy efficiency in public buildings, climate neutral schools, transformative education and invasive species.

Webpage: https://www.ufu.de/en/

Team of the project:

Luisa Schneider, luisa.schneider@ufu.de

Martin Nguyen, martin.nguyen@ufu.de

Alina Beigang, alina.beigang@ufu.de

Zelena Akcija, Croatia

Zelena akcija/FoE Croatia is a member of the largest network of environmental associations in the world, Friends of the Earth International.

Through our work, we want to contribute to the improvement of environmental protection systems at the local, national and global levels by encouraging change through campaigns, non-violent direct actions, projects, public participation in decision-making, etc. The goal of our activities is to protect the environment and nature and encourage development towards a low-carbon society, guided by the principles of social justice and systemic change. We pay the greatest attention to activities aimed at encouraging public participation in environmental decision-making and improving the quality of life in Croatia.

We also share information, experience and expertise in the field of environmental protection with other associations, individuals, communities, schools, etc. in Croatia and beyond.

Webpage: https://www.zelena-akcija.hr/en

Team of the project:

Enes Cerimagic, enes@zelena-akcija.hr

Zeljka Leljak Gracin, zeljka@zelena-akcija.hr

The Activities

Survey and Legal Research

The aim of ENRICH is to raise awareness of child participation rights in climate-related policymaking processes and contribute to the practical implementation of legal requirements, guidelines and recommendations set forth in child right strategic frameworks. To achieve these goals, we have selected activities (research, survey, trainings, conference) that target key stakeholders who are essential to realizing effective child participation methods and that offer practical support for systemic improvement. Ensuring the rights-based participation of children in climate action requires active measures from Member States and the EU as well, so our project has two levels – national and EU.

Surveys

Each national beneficiary organization will be responsible for organizing the local trainings for targeted stakeholders and managing their national segment of the project. Preceding the training sessions, in order to reveal the needs of the target audience, we will be selecting and inviting relevant stakeholders and running surveys regarding their pre-existing awareness of child participation methods and issues. The outcome of these surveys will be available here.

Legal Research

The aim of the training events is to give a comprehensive picture of children’s rights in environmental and climate policymaking. For this purpose, we review the current legal environment and the practice of enforcing rights. Adapting to the target group, we will jointly review the current issues and problems of the topic, identify ways to improve participation opportunities. The legal studies will be available here.

Kata Dozsa (Brussels School of Governance-VUB) contributes to the legal study and the ENRICH events as a child rights expert consultant.

Training Events

Training the three key stakeholder groups ensures that child participation is strengthened at different stages from education to policymaking. Therefore, we will develop training materials that incorporate the findings of our project research and that address and cover issues specific to the different target groups.

Environmental and child rights NGOs and activists will be trained to better advocate for children’s needs in relation to the climate crisis. They will be provided information on the scope and extent of environmental child rights, relevant EU and international frameworks, existing challenges in child participation, recent progress in environmental child rights implementation, best practices, tools for monitoring and assessing children’s participation as expert stakeholders, and on cooperating with and facilitating the involvement of children groups and child-led organizations in the decision-making processes.

The training for environmental educators, teachers, academia, and education NGOs will focus on the elements of a holistic environmental education, including teaching about climate change and sustainable living but also environmental rights, child and public participatory rights in an age-appropriate manner. Linking environmental and citizenship education can help ensure children’s right to information and provide them with knowledge and tools to act as active citizens. Trainings will also raise awareness of gender equality issues in children’s participation and how teachers can help ensure equal opportunities and representation of vulnerable and marginalized groups.

Local decision-makers and representatives of official bodies dealing with children’s rights and environmental policies (e.g., Ministry of Environment, Education, Ombudsman’s Office, environmental agencies, Members of Parliament, etc.) will be educated on how to build child participation into the policymaking process as early as possible, and at all levels (planning, design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation). Legal obligations, development of child-friendly policy documents, establishing guarantees for public participation of children as individuals and as a group, feedback mechanisms, participatory and consultation methods, age-appropriate mechanisms, gender and non-discrimination mainstreaming, and child rights impact assessment will also be covered.

The training events will also serve as a discussion platform for the different stakeholders and experts to share their experiences, challenges, discuss future needs and steps, and build alliances for more effective child participation.

Kata Dozsa (Brussels School of Governance-VUB) contributes to the legal study and the ENRICH events as a child rights expert consultant

Online Conferences

We will organize an online conference to present findings and hold discussions about child rights, environmental and climate participation, implementation of children rights in practice, and related EU legislation. The conference will also enable participants to discuss specific challenges, issues, and exchange best practices.

Agenda of the Conference

Presentations

The ENRICH project (Csaba Kiss, Coordinator, Justice & Environment)

Climate rights, climate citizens with special regard to children (Kata Dózsa, Adjunct Professor and Postdoctoral Researcher, Brussels School of Governance – Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

How to ensure meaningful respect for children’s human right to be heard and freedom of expression in environmental decision-making processes? (Elisa Morgera, UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change and Human Rights and professor at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow)

Children’s access to environmental justice in Europe: Preliminary findings and recommendations (Gisela Sin Gomiz, Legal Researcher and Access to Justice Coordinator, Child Rights International Network (CRIN))

Video recordings of the online opening event are available here.

Based on the research and national events, the partners will develop conclusions and recommendations on how child rights and child participation in environmental policymaking can be strengthened at both the EU and national levels. The recommendations will be connected to the recent UN General comment No. 26 on child participation, the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child, and national climate action plans and will include concrete, practical action steps and implementation measures for enhancing participation and inclusion in environmental and climate policymaking (not just generally in policymaking) based on the relevant international legal frameworks.

We will present the recommendations at an international online event to be attended by national and EU decision-makers and environmental child rights experts and stakeholders.

Kata Dózsa (Brussels School of Governance-VUB) contributes to the legal study and the ENRICH events as a child rights expert consultant

Where can you meet us?

During the course of the project, partners in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Hungary and Slovenia will hold a number of events and meetings where you can join us and get insight into our work relating to the enforcement of children’s rights.

To find out where and when exactly we are having our events, please follow the project partners’ websites where information is published on recent and upcoming meetings.

Also, follow the Facebook, X, Instagram and LinkedIn pages of Justice and Environment to get info on our project’s progress.

Links to the project partners’ related webpages: see the Contacts and Links section below

J&E’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/justiceandenvironment

J&E’s X page: https://twitter.com/justenvinet

J&E’s Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/justice.and.environment/

J&E’s LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/communications-justice-and-environment-326a90318/

The outputs of our actions are below: