ABSTRACT
In seeking climate justice, civil society actors, including children and youth often employ various strategies to have their voices heard, to raise awareness and to influence decision-makers. One of these avenues is climate change litigation which to defend people’s rights, especially those of the most vulnerable, to redress violations and to ensure accountability of climate action duty-bearers. In the wake of the youth social movement for the climate, young people have been increasingly involved in litigation to legally challenge governments and trans-national communities of states in order to advance effective action on climate change. For children, courts can serve as ‘empowered spaces’ of public participation where they can exercise their climate citizenship through access to justice. In these ambitious and often very long procedures, both the social and the legal context, the outcome of the cases affect can have a game-changing affect the rights of children – not only as petitioners but also as a group of the society. This chapter looks at climate change litigation from a children’s rights perspective. First it showcases three recent examples of strategic litigation that involve children – at national, regional and international level, and assesses the status and role of children and how (in what way and to what extent) their rights linked to participation are fulfilled. Considering that climate justice entails the fulfilment of children’s rights and interests, this chapter argues that a positive outcome and impact of climate change litigation can outweigh the legal and procedural standards of participation of children.
