WASHINGTON — Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg and 15 other children around the world have filed a formal complaint with the United Nations alleging that countries have violated their human rights by not taking proper precautions to fight against the climate crisis.
The 16 children range in age from 8 to 17 years old, and they come from 12 different countries.
The complaint was filed with the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child shortly after Thunberg spoke at the U.N. Climate summit.
The complaint specifically accuses Germany, France, Brazil, Argentina and Turkey of violating children's rights because of inaction on climate change.
Thunberg delivered an impassioned speech, repeatedly asking world leaders "How dare you?"
Going on to say, "I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean," said Thunberg, who lives in Sweden. "Yet you have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words."
The petition brings up a list of issues, but among them states, "The climate crisis is not an abstract future threat. The 1.1°C rise in global average temperature is presently causing devastating heat waves, forest fires, extreme weather patterns, floods, and sea level rise, infringing on the human rights of millions of people globally."
It calls on the attention of every nation saying that all nations have contributed to climate change and have given excuses for decades.
Thunberg began a lone protest outside the Swedish parliament more than a year ago that culminated in Friday's global climate strikes.
