This panel event will launch “Ecocide Law and the Rights of The Child: How legal recognition of the most severe harms to nature could protect children's rights” a report by Stop Ecocide International about the connection between ecocide law and children’s rights. The event will feature report writers, experts in relevant sectors, and activists working on child rights and environmental justice.

Speakers:

Robert

Robert is a 10 year-old climate communicator and activist based in Toronto, Canada. He started a Youtube channel, Children's Climate Championship, over a year ago where he interviews kids under 12 as well as scientists and civil society representatives about climate change, biodiversity loss, and initiatives to help save the planet. Robert was a delegate at the Convention on Biological Diversity’s COP15 in Montreal, where he was invited to give an in-person speech to key decision-makers.

Priyanka Lalla

Priyanka Lalla is a 17 year-old child rights advocate from Trinidad and Tobago. She has been a UNICEF Youth Advocate since 2020, focusing on children's right to education, health - mental and physical, child protection, and climate action. Priyanka is also a National Child Rights Ambassador in Trinidad and Tobago (since 2018),  Chair of the National Child Rights Steering Committee, and a member of UNICEF’s U-Report Main Steering Committee. She is a zero-waste lifestyle blogger and in 2022, Priyanka authored and illustrated a children's book - Svara's Ocean Adventures.

Anna Maddrick

Anna is a legal adviser for Stop Ecocide International and a current PhD candidate at the University of Bologna. She is an academic and public advocate on ecocide law and reformed global environmental governance. Anna has two distinctions in law at Bachelors and Masters levels and is co-chairing a "Legal Pact for the Future", calling for judicially enforceable environmental and human rights in the courts of all countries. She has advised and written extensively on ecocide law, the global commons and judicial enforcement and has participated in a number of panels as a speaker within the United Nations as well as a handful of universities and various other international organisations around the world.

Amalie Wilkinson

Amalie Wilkinson (they/xe/she) is an environmental advocate based in Toronto, Canada, and co-author of the report. Xe is a Youth Ambassador for Stop Ecocide Canada, the Founder of Stop Ecocide Toronto, and a Co-lead of Stop Ecocide’s global Youth 4 Ecocide Law network. Xe has represented Stop Ecocide at various global speaking engagements, including LCOY Canada, side events for the Convention on Biological Diversity’s COP15 and the UN 2023 Water Conference, and webinars by Stop Ecocide International. Beyond the Stop Ecocide movement, Amalie is a student, queer rights advocate, tree planter, and climate strike organiser. Amalie is completing an undergraduate degree in International Relations and Peace, Conflict, and Justice Studies at the University of Toronto.

Elizabeth Doherty

Beth is a climate advocate from Dublin, Ireland. She has been involved in climate activism since 2019, beginning as an organiser of the school strikes. Since then, she has worked nationally and internationally on climate justice, including a case which overturned Ireland's climate legislation and the national strategy for Education for Sustainable Development. 

She is currently working with Global Choices to draft legal and policy proposals to protect the Central Arctic Ocean. As Vice President of the Cambridge Climate Society, she works to empower students to engage with the climate crisis. She is driven by a passion for justice and a liveable future.

Farzana Jhumu

Farzana Jhumu is a climate activist and UNICEF Youth Advocate based in Bangladesh. She has worked with Fridays for Future (FFF) Bangladesh, UN Women Feminist Action Coalition for Climate Justice, and 350.org. She is a strong voice campaigning for a liveable future on a healthy planet and for the phasing out of fossil fuels. With UNICEF, she played a key role in launching the Climate Risk Index in 2021, to highlight the climate crisis as a child rights crisis. Designated as a UNICEF Youth Advocate in 2022, Farzana has worked to enhance youth participation in climate governance. She has attended several international conferences, including the UNFCCC’s COP26 in Glasgow and the 2022 Stockholm+50 Pre-Summit.

Moderated by:

Judy Foster

Judy Foster is the Head of Operations and International Outreach at Stop Ecocide International. She has been part of Stop Ecocide from the early days and has helped it grow over the last 4 years into a global movement with teams and representatives in around 50 countries. After working for many years in the corporate sector, she moved to an education charity where she co-founded an awarding organisation specialising in vision-based, holistic education. This led to her discovering a passion for nature and creating change in the world, which ultimately led her to Stop Ecocide.