An Analysis of the Relation between Children's Rights and Climate Change: Youth-led Climate Litigation and Intergenerational Equity

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges to the fulfilment of children’s rights, making children one of the most vulnerable groups to climate-related impacts and diseases. Children are less equipped to deal with climate-related shocks and stresses. They are more likely to be injured, experience psychological trauma, and suffer health complications due to impacts on water and food security. Consequently, the climate crisis is leading to a child’s rights crisis and is undermining the effective enjoyment of the rights enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), including the best interest of the child (Art. 3), the right to survival and development (Art. 6), the right to be heard (Art. 12), the right to health (Art. 24), the right to an adequate standard of living (Art. 27), among others. Additionally, recognising children’s rights is not overly featured in key international, regional, and national decision-making frameworks related to climate change. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child only receives complaints from children after they have exhausted all channels of redress in their countries, meaning that children have to navigate a lengthy and expensive legal process. Additionally, the CRC, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the Paris Agreement do not provide child-sensitive complaint mechanisms, and the UNFCCC does not provide for a procedure for people (children included) to seek redress for injury caused by climate change. Despite this, children and young people actively engage in climate activism and are more aware of the intergenerational impact of climate change and its implications for future generations. In youth-led climate litigation, young activists ask states to be held accountable for their lack of action and adopt strong mitigation measures. Children and their representatives advocate for the protection of the rights of future generations, and argue that climate change is an “abdication of one generation’s responsibility to the next, violating the principles of intergenerational equity", a concept that can be defined as the idea that “long-term interests of future generations are taken into due account in the decisions made by the present generation and, thus, the latter does not compromise the former’s ability to meet their own needs”. In summary, with this thesis I intend to analyse the relationship and the interactions between children’s rights and climate change, focusing on youth-led climate litigation and the protection of the rights and interests of future generations and, in doing so, ensure intergenerational equity. To do so, I will try to answer the following research question: “Considering the developments and challenges of children’s rights and climate change, how are children and young people ensuring the protection of the rights of future generations and intergenerational equity through climate litigation?”