Child-friendly justice for the climate crisis: Post-paternalist judgments, litigation, participation

Introduction

YOUTHCLIMATEJUSTICE is the first large-scale transnational examination of youth justice in the climate crisis. In climate activism/litigation, under-18s are often leading on a political issue on a global scale – this is unprecedented in human rights law.

Context

Yet most children’s rights literature examines children as victims in the climate crisis. We know from other areas of law (e.g. family, criminal, etc.) that justice processes are ill-suited to children and have to be tailored to their needs. A body of work on ‘child-friendly justice’ has arisen to deal with this.

Project Focus

YOUTHCLIMATEJUSTICE examines how child-friendly justice, and consequently children’s rights scholarship, is transformed by youth climate activism. The project proposes the ‘post-paternalism’ hypothesis – traditionally, it is assumed that children are ‘given’ rights by adults, such as the right to be heard, but youth climate activists are taking control of their own rights, e.g. in justice systems.

Objectives

YOUTHCLIMATEJUSTICE aims to work beyond contemporary paternalistic approaches to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, examining intergenerational dynamics in this ‘post-paternalist’ climate context. This will be done through three work packages examining youth climate justice in:

1. Judgments
2. Litigation
3. Participation

Methodology

This transdisciplinary project will include innovative methodology, including:

• IDEAL causal modelling of case law data
• Surveys
• Participatory action research (in Barbados, Canada, Ireland, Nepal, and South Africa)

These methods will theorize transformation in children’s rights through youth climate action.

Impact

It is a groundbreaking democratic endeavor whereby children can shape both academia and human rights for a post-paternalist world. Outputs include:

• A new evidence-informed framework on Child-Friendly Climate Justice (CFCJ) to facilitate both academic and legal/social transformation in the field
• A CFCJ Research Centre
• An experimental initiative to embed CFCJ in a live climate case.