india

Updated: Sep 24, 2019 10:40 IST

Ridhima Pandey from India is among sixteen teenagers who filed a legal complaint to the United Nations about climate change during the UN Climate Action Summit on September 23.

Their petition outlines how their human rights are being violated by the failure of nations, particularly five nations--Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey - to seriously address the climate crisis.

All the five countries have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Under the international treaty, countries have specific obligations to provide for the health and well-being of children. These obligations aren’t being met as the climate crisis intensifies, according to their petition.

Six years ago, Ridhima Pandey, who belongs to Uttarakhand, moved with her family from Nainital to Haridwar. “Every year in July, there is a festival called Kanwar Yatra, which incorporates and is held near the holy Ganges River. But recently, it is much hotter in the summer and winter months. The hotter temperatures have threatened the Ganges River, which now faces lowering water levels from recent droughts – challenging the continuation of the religious rituals that are centered around it.t,” Ridhima says in the ChildrenVsClimateCrisis website.

“The few times it does rain, it rains very heavily. The rain causes the Ganges to reach the danger mark, threatening floods, and the increasingly intense rainstorms overwhelm the local infrastructure. In 2013, Ridhima and her family experienced one such devastating rainstorm in Haridwar that resulted in flooding and many casualties,” it adds.

Swedish teen activist, Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Villasenor from US are among the six teenagers who have sued these countries.

Vilasenor says in November 2018 her home town of Davis, California, saw one of the deadliest wildfires which blazed across 153,336 acres, destroying nearly 14,000 residences and killing about 85 people.