Institute of Development Studies

Child Rights and Climate Change

'Investigating ‘Child Rights’ to adaptation'

Climate change is increasingly being framed as a major human rights concern. Organisations addressing the social dimensions of climate change are looking to human rights tools and mechanisms to hold state actors, the international community and private actors to account.

Children in developing countries hold least responsibility for climate change yet will inherit the impacts along with the legacy of a climate change regime that has yet to make real headway towards tackling the problem. It is therefore time to look at the relevance of the Child Rights Regime. 

This research in Kenya and Cambodia gathers the voices of children in Kenya and Cambodia on climate risks and considers their priorities for adaptation. National level policy and stakeholder analysis will identify opportunities for children’s voices to be heard and considered in national adaptation, poverty reduction and social protection strategies, including National Adaptation Programmes of Action. The research supports and investigates child-led policy dialogue and participatory advocacy on climate change issues.

This research touches on the conceptual debates associated with child rights and development in a changing climate including, legal liability debates, rights-based approaches, and other emerging normative frameworks. Yet it focuses on the practical dimensions of taking a more explicitly child rights approach to policy making on adaptation whilst critically assessing the validity and effectiveness of such an approach.

• IDS key contact: Emily Polack
• Project dates: December 2008 - January 2010
• Project status: Closed
• Funder: Plan Sweden

Researchers

• Emily Polack

Partner Organisations

• Plan International