Children and youth in the Global South strive to redefine their right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment through climate activismThis article is based on the understanding that “climate degradation constitutes a form of structural violence that exacerbates existing inequalities and vulnerabilities for children born today, as well as future generations, in low-income and middle-income countries.” Therefore, climate change violates children’s right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment—a right established by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 2023. The CRC, through General Comment No. 26, also emphasized the importance of children’s ability to access information and participate in decision-making processes related to environmental and climate issues. Importantly, General Comment No. 26 demonstrates a shift away from traditional paternalistic frameworks in which “adults define and ‘give’ rights to children” to post-paternalism, which recognizes children’s capacity to define their own rights. This participatory article examines the experiences of child and youth climate activists in the Global South (Asia and Africa) through narrative ‘snapshots’ of their efforts to expand their power to claim the right to a healthy environment through climate activism.
The article was co-authored by five children (under 18 years at the start of the project) and four young adults from Bangladesh, Nigeria, Nepal, India and Switzerland, with the guidance of a supporting adult. The article was developed in response to a call for abstracts for an international child- and youth-friendly climate justice conference. The co-authors generated ideas and shared their experiences through a series of online workshops. The workshops incorporated child-friendly, creative methods such as drawing, poetry and reflective writing, and were attentive to special concerns, such as eco-anxiety. Following the workshops, the co-authors were supported in sharing their perspectives on post-paternalism and the right to a clean and healthy environment. Ideas developed by the group were presented at the conference and used to conceptualize this article. The article is grounded in two “mutually reinforcing” theoretical frameworks, living rights and decolonial theory. The living rights framework posits that children should have agency to define their own rights. Decolonial theory strives to make the impacts of colonialism and racism visible by recognizing their influence in the contemporary world. The frameworks served to decolonize knowledge and critique “adult-centric” approaches to academic writing about children and youth.
Narratives written by the co-authors serve as ‘snapshots’ of their experiences advocating for their right to a healthy and sustainable environment at global, national and local levels. Overall, the narratives reveal the perspective that “climate change and political crisis are both linearly and exponentially correlated to children’s rights.” The narratives highlight instances of youth inclusion in climate action, such as serving as a student adviser for the local government. The narratives underscore the importance of participation in actual decision-making processes: “I didn’t just observe children’s involvement in local governance from the sidelines – I was one of those children attending municipal meetings, voicing concerns to officials, and even influencing budget allocations for child-friendly spaces.” Such experiences demonstrated “how children’s voices can directly shape policies and lead to real changes in communities.” However, climate action experiences that did not authentically engage youth led the co-authors to conclude that their participation was “an act of tokenism rather than a step towards meaningful and holistic integration of children in the process.” The narratives also indicate that shifting to a post-paternalistic approach to youth-led climate action “requires moving beyond an ill-defined idea of marginalized communities, children most at risk of violence, and ideas “worthy” of funding and scholarship.” This will involve developing better ways of listening, dismantling unbalanced power dynamics, and “ensuring children have the resources, mentorship, protection and support to be able to realize their rights.”
Across the narrative snapshots, children’s and young people’s activism was “grounded in a personal and aspirational experience of knowing, associating and participating in advocacy spaces available to them.” The narratives highlight the importance of viewing children’s right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a living right, which is dynamically shaped by local and context-specific experiences of children and youth. The narratives further demonstrate that, despite the CRC's aims for post-paternalism at the international level, paternalism often persists at local and national levels. In many instances, adultist frameworks continue to define how young activists engage in climate action, which can be “prescriptive, extractive or alienating.”
The article reveals that intergenerational engagement in climate activism, involving children and young people, presents opportunities for transformative and constructive cycles of knowledge sharing and action. Embracing diverse forms of knowing may help to remedy historical patterns of Othering that have silenced and excluded certain voices and experiences as less important. Children’s and youth’s participation in climate action may also counteract feelings of hopelessness towards the climate crisis. Future research and climate action projects should prioritize the perspectives of children and young people from the Global South, whose experiences with climate activism may differ from those of youth in the Global North.
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