2019, Greta Thunberg (16), Sweden

When Greta first learned about climate change at about eight years old, she was shocked that adults didn’t seem to take the crisis seriously. She became depressed. She didn’t eat, go to school or speak for months. Her need to fight for the climate became her motivation. She made the decision never to fly, to eat meat or dairy, or to buy unnecessary new things: a “shop stop”.

But Greta saw that she needed to use her voice to do more. Inspired by last year’s International Children’s Peace Prize winners, March for Our Lives, she sat down in front of Sweden’s parliament on August 20^th 2018 with a home-made banner: skolstrejk för klimatet (school strike for climate).

Her parents had tried to stop her. No other children had joined her. But she was determined to see it through and sat down, alone. She wrote on Twitter: “We children usually don’t do as you tell us to do, we do as you do. And if you adults don’t care about my future, neither do I. I will school strike for the climate until election day.” The media took an immediate interest, and Greta’s climate strike made the news.

Environmental issues are human rights issues. A healthy environment is essential to the survival, well-being and development of children, and therefore a precondition for the realization of the rights of the child. At the same time, the fulfillment of children’s rights is a fundamental component of environmental protection. A child with sufficient access to justice can take her government to court for not doing enough to protect the environment that is essential to her survival.

Greta’s school strike spread to other Swedish cities, to other European countries, and finally to other continents. Over seven million young people embraced Fridays for Future, striking for climate justice in places all over the world.