The work and advocacy of Dalhousie Alumni Award recipient (2015) and member of the Dal Alumni Association Board, Sara Austin (BA’98), has paved the way for climate crusader Greta Thunberg and other children.

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When 16 children, including Greta Thunberg, filed a complaint to the United Nations on Monday protesting lack of government action on the climate crisis, it fulfilled the vision a Calgary woman dreamed of in the early 2000s.

In the landmark case, 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Thunberg — who made headlines around the world for her scathing words at the U.N. Climate Action Summit — and her peers allege that the governments of Germany, France, Brazil, Argentina and Turkey have violated human rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child by not taking necessary action to address the climate crisis.

The complaint was filed through the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which allows children to appeal to the United Nations if a country that has signed onto the protocol doesn’t provide a remedy for a rights violation.

The protocol was the brainchild of Calgary child advocate Sara Austin, who spent years working with children around the world in places such as Asia, Africa and Latin America. Austin encountered many children in need, whether it was young labourers in the streets of Bangkok or HIV-positive girls without access to treatment in Africa.

Read more in “Calgary woman’s advocacy paved way for climate crusader Greta Thunberg and other children” on thechronicleherald.ca. Photo: Postmedia News