You should be seeing some content in this space that is currently blocked due to cookie settings. Open the Cookie Management Tool to change your settings.
It is an exciting time in children’s rights. Children and youth have had leadership roles in efforts to combat the climate crisis, challenging traditional attitudes to children as passive victims. Children have been heard by national governments, parliaments and others in power. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has produced a General Comment on the right of children to a healthy environment, with the involvement of thousands of children all over the world. Much of the recent climate litigation involves children/youth as litigants or children’s rights arguments, in another groundbreaking turn for children’s rights. There is much to research in the area. There is also much to be done to bring together practitioners/advocates with academics who analyse these occurrences through the framework of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Questions must also be asked about the extent to which climate/environmental justice systems are sufficiently accessible and appropriate for children and youth.
This international, interdisciplinary conference fills this gap, hosting papers and discussions on this topic from children/youth, academics, practitioners and others. We will engage in critical discussions on children’s rights and interests in the climate crisis, and examine what exactly the right to a healthy environment means for children. We will examine what child-friendly justice looks like in the climate crisis, and potential consequences of developments in the area for children’s rights; particularly in relation to the UN convention on the rights of the child. We will examine how the children’s rights framework relates to arguments around future generations, and how climate action can progress intergenerational justice.
This event is part of the European Research Council-funded project Youth Climate Justice which seeks to re-examine children’s rights through the work of children/youth in the climate crisis.
Ann Skelton is a Professor of Law at the University of Pretoria, and at Leiden University where she holds the Chair: Children’s Rights in a Sustainable Word. Her lifetime career includes a leading role in child law reform and child rights strategic litigation in South Africa. She is currently the Chairperson of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and in that role she has participated in several side events at COP 28 and as an expert in UNEP meetings and events in Geneva. She is a member of the Sabin Centre Global Network Group on International and Regional Courts.
Karabo Ozah is the Director of the Centre for Child Law and a Lecturer in the Department of Private Law at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. The Centre for Child Law is an organisation that protects and promotes children’s rights through research, advocacy and strategic litigation.
Sumaya Mohammed, an 18-year-old activist living in Cork, is a passionate advocate for climate action. As the co-founder of the Students Climate Action Network and Climate Youth Artivists, she has dedicated herself to driving change. Her journey in climate activism began at the age of 12 in her school, leading her to co-organise the major climate action protests in Cork.
Driven by her commitment to Climate Justice and to achieve fair climate education for all, Sumaya actively engages with numerous organisations and gives workshops to educational institutions ranging from 1st to 3rd level education. She is a member of the Somali climate youth advisory group, which was established following her participation in COP27. Additionally, Sumaya has actively participated in the local, national, and international levels of Fridays For Future.
Bruce Adamson is a human rights lawyer and a Fellow at Cattanach which focuses on supporting rights in early childhood. He is Vice Chair of the Child Friendly Governance Project, a global NGO which is putting children at the heart of decision making. Bruce was Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland from 2017-2023 and Chair of the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children 2019-2022 where he had a strong focus on the role of Child Human Rights Defenders fighting for climate justice. He was Professor in Practice at the University of Glasgow School of Law 2023-2024.
Professor Ursula Kilkelly has worked in international children’s rights for over 25 years, focused on areas of implementation and impact. She has published extensively in this area. Her latest book, with Professor Jonathan Todres, explores the relationship between children’s rights and child development. Her full profile is available here: UCC Research Profiles: Ursula Kilkelly, Law
Aoife Nolan is Professor of International Human Rights Law and Director of the Human Rights Law Centre at the University of Nottingham. Her current academic work focuses on future generations rights and children’s rights in the context of climate justice. She is President of the Council of Europe's European Committee of Social Rights. Professor Nolan has acted as an expert advisor to a wide range of international and national entities working on human rights issues, including the Council of Europe and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on its General Comment No.26. She is an Academic Expert member at Doughty Street Chambers, where she co-leads the Children’s Rights Group.
Niamh Purcell is a seventeen-years-old young climate advocate from southseat Ireland. She became a Young Advisor for Ireland's Children and Young People's Assembly on Biodiversity Loss when she was 15, and has been advocating for youth climate justice ever since. She strongly belives that meaningful intergenerational collaboration is the only way to ensure a fair future for everyone.
Helen Stalford is Professor of Law at the School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool. She has researched and published extensively on children’s rights and has a particular expertise in children’s access to and experiences of justice. All of her work adopts a participatory methodology to support children not only as research respondents, but as peer researchers and research agenda-setters. She does her best to ensure that all of her research informs legal, policy and practice reform. Further information is available here.
Elisa Morgera is Professor of Global Environmental Law and the UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change and Human Rights (since May 2024). From 2019-2024, Elisa has been the Director of the UKRI GCRF One Ocean Hub. She specializes in international, European and comparative environmental law, with a particular focus on the interaction with human rights (particularly those of Indigenous peoples, small-scale fishers, local communities and children), equity and sustainability in natural resource development, oceans governance, and corporate accountability. Elisa has also researched the environmental dimensions of the external relations of the European Union (EU).
Themes
Children/Youth and Environmental Rights: in their own words.
The Climate Crisis and Children’s Rights.
Intergenerational Issues and Future Generations.
Human Rights Obligations and Child/Youth Climate Justice.
Defining Child/Youth Environmental Rights.
Climate Litigation and UN Activities.
Justice for Children/Youth.
Children’s Environmental Rights, and Planning/Spaces.
Children and Climate Justice around the World.
Children and the Effects of Climate Change.
Children, Climate and Law/Governance.
Programme
For this conference, an in-person and online programme will run simultaneously, with the in-person plenary sessions being live-streamed as part of the online programme. Those participating online will see both the plenary and the online sessions; it is important to note that those attending online will not be able to attend the presentations taking place as part of the in-person programme.
You can check the in-person and online programmes, as well as the book of abstracts, here:
.jpg)
