Freedom to breathe

Empowering children to secure their right to clean air. The Freedom to Breathe campaign empowered children across the world to call for their right to clean air to be recognised by the United Nations.

Air pollution is devastating for the environment and to our lungs. My question to the United Nations is this – when will I get to breathe the clean air I want?

Arnav, 11 years old, Delhi, India

Take Action

Watch our Freedom to breathe film, showing children around the world calling for the right to clean air.

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Global Action Plan’s vision is of healthy, connected, low-carbon communities, where people breathe clean air at home and in their local neighbourhood.

Breathing clean air is vital to help children thrive and go on to live long healthy lives. Despite this, nine out of ten children around the world are currently breathing dangerous levels of air pollution, making it the greatest environmental threat to their health.

Working in partnership with Blueair, Association for the Promotion of Youth Leadership Advocacy and Volunteerism Cameroon (APYLAV), Centre for Environment Education, Coalition for Clean Air, and Safekids Worldwide, we educated children in five countries about the harms of air pollution and successfully empowered them to call on the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) to enshrine their right to clean air for the first time.

30,000

children from the UK, Cameroon, China, India and the US demanded that their right to clean air be recognised by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child

organisations, experts and businesses signed a letter supporting the children’s call, including UNICEF UK, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Unilever, Global Alliance on Health and Pollution, Professor Sir Stephen Holgate (air pollution expert) and Professor Jonathan Grigg (paediatric health expert).

What we did

We conducted global research demonstrating that children across the world wanted their right to clean air recognised by the United Nations.

We worked with partners across the world to deliver an education programme that helped young people understand the state of air quality in their cities, the health harms of poor air quality, and what measures they could take at home and in school to protect themselves.

The UN committee created official guidance in 2022 on what governments should do to uphold a child’s right to a clean, healthy environment, but it did not clarify that this right included breathing clean air.

Children involved in the Freedom to Breathe campaign were supported to engage with the formal child-friendly consultation process on this guidance, voicing their concerns about air pollution.

Seeing clean air recognised as a child’s right through General Comment 26 is a fantastic step forward. The efforts of these young people – together with their coalition of supporters and hundreds of other campaigners from around the world – have helped elevate this critical issue and will help protect children from the devastating impacts that air pollution has on their health and wellbeing.

Hannah Battram, Senior Manager of Clean Air for Children

After our successful campaigning, the UN recognised the child’s right to clean air for the first time.

The Freedom to Breathe film went on to receive a ‘Special Mention from the Jury’ by the World Health Organization at the Health for All Film Festival.

Nine out of ten children breathe air that exceeds pollution levels deemed safe by the World Health Organization. We worked with children across the globe to call for the right for children to breathe clean air.

we need an air quality revolution

Vice-Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child