Overlooked and undermined

The call to tackle climate change for the sake of children and future generations has by now become a well-worn phrase – a declaration commonly made by heads of state, but too rarely translated in the policies and laws over which they preside, despite near universal ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). ¹ While the UN Human Rights Council has emphasised that children are among the most vulnerable to climate change, ² the interface between child rights and climate change remains one of the least understood and least represented in the work of global, regional and national actors and advocates concerned with child rights. Conversely, or perhaps reflecting this, children’s rights have been largely overlooked in international negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and in the multitude of regional and national policies and processes that derive from these more broadly.