A children's rights approach to the climate crisis in Africa

"Ethiopian children" by Bioversity International is licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 2.0.

The negative impact of the climate crisis on the world's children has created a children's rights crisis. It is the children of Africa, however, who are the most vulnerable.

Climate change mitigation and adaptation policies and legislation must therefore be drafted in a way that ensures that the rights of Africa's children are promoted, protected, and realised to their fullest extent.

The climate crisis and children's rights

The connection between the climate crisis and human rights impacts is accepted and certain. The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General has stated that "the climate crisis is the biggest threat to our survival as a species and is already threatening human rights around the world".

Further, the UN Human Rights Council has adopted several resolutions on human rights and climate change. These resolutions note that climate change will, directly and indirectly, impact a broad range of human rights, with impacts particularly felt by already vulnerable populations, such as children.  

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently released an extensive report detailing the risks faced by children due to the climate crisis. It found that almost every child on earth is exposed to at least one climate hazard, including heatwaves, droughts, extreme tropical storms, and flooding, among other things.

Children are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts due to their physical, psychological, and developmental immaturity and risk injury or death from the direct impacts of climate hazards. At the same time, they are also susceptible to indirect impacts, such as disruptions to access to health care, mental health services, education, and other essential services needed for their survival and development. Notably, while all children are vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis, those with disabilities, on the move, in poverty, and indigenous children will suffer disproportionate impacts.

Climate change is expected to impact most rights owed to children found within the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. UNICEF notes that there may be no more significant threat facing the world's children and future generations than climate change. Thus, the climate crisis has been correctly branded “a children's rights crisis“.

“Research shows that 66% of the top 50 countries where children are most at risk of climate change impacts are on the African Continent. The result is that the climate crisis is truly an African children's rights crisis.”

An African Children's Rights Crisis

Africa's surface temperatures are increasing faster than the global average, despite Africa contributing the least to the cumulative global greenhouse gas emissions. The result is that the continent is already experiencing widespread loss and damage.

Moreover, loss and damage are expected to increase for every degree Celsius rise in the global surface temperature. For example, more frequent and severe extremes in weather, such as heat and cold waves, increased climate-related disasters such as drought or flooding and increased sea levels around the continent resulting in coastal flooding and the salination of fresh water.

This is distressing in light of Africa’s status as the “youngest continent”, where 40% of the continent's population is under the age of fifteen. Moreover, research shows that 66% of the top 50 countries where children are most at risk of climate change impacts are on the African Continent. The result is that the climate crisis is truly an African children's rights crisis.

A children's rights approach to climate change impacts in Africa.

It is time for a comprehensive children's rights approach to climate change impacts in Africa. A children's rights approach is one that positions the child and their rights at the heart of implementation processes. It can be used to create coherent strategies for addressing and implementing children's rights in the context of climate change. The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee) has committed to such an approach in its First Draft of General Comment 26, which aims to focus on the rights of children affected by climate change.

Notably, a children's rights approach to climate change identifies rights holders as children affected by the direct and indirect impacts of climate change. States are held as the primary duty bearers and have positive obligations placed upon them to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

The use of a children's rights approach to climate change litigation is starting to gain momentum as a method for children as rights holders to enforce their rights as enshrined in international and regional rights instruments. For example, this approach was taken in relation to the complaint made to the CRC Committee in Sacchi et al. In Sacchi, a collection of children (including several from Africa) approached the Committee regarding their States' failures in their climate change mitigation and adaptation policies and actions, which resulted in the infringement of children's rights.

The complaint, however, was unsuccessful as the CRC Committee found that the children had not yet exhausted domestic remedies. The Committee did not dismiss the complaint based on the content of the complaint, but rather, it acknowledged that the children's rights had been harmed by climate change.

Therefore, it is still possible that children could advance their rights and interests through the use of rights monitoring bodies such as the CRC Committee and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in the future. However, children are first required to make use of their domestic court systems, where they may also make use of a children's rights approach.

In addition to climate litigation, a children's rights approach to climate change ensures that all principles and standards used and created in the context of climate change mitigation and adaptation are derived from the rights found within the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. These treaties will thus act as a normative framework.

Conclusion

The children of Africa are already experiencing impacts on their rights due to climate change. Furthermore, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 6th Assessment Report makes it clear they will also be the first to suffer significant climate impacts and resulting rights impacts in the future.

Thus, considering the immense impacts on the rights of children within Africa as a result of the climate crisis, states must begin to implement a children's rights approach to their mitigation and adaptation strategies, ensuring the protection, promotion, and realisation of the rights of the African child. Further, children should feel empowered to use a children's rights approach to climate litigation domestically and internationally when states fail in their obligations.