Children in a changing climate

project Investigating a child's 'right' to adaptation

theme: rights and governance

This research investigates the implications of climate change for the fulfilment of child rights and the opportunities adaptation programmes may offer for safeguarding them. This includes a right to participate in national adaptation policy processes.

project particulars

co-ordinator: Emily Polack, IDS

partners: IDS, Plan (Sweden, Cambodia, Kenya, UK)

researchers: Emily Polack, IDS; Lim Soviet, Suon Seng, CENTDOR; Elvin Nyukuri, ACTS; Patricia Kameri-Mbote

duration: 2008-2009

funders: Plan Sweden

countries: Cambodia, Kenya

overview

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.

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.

This research 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 country studies support and investigate child-led policy dialogue and participatory advocacy on climate change issues.

This research explores 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.