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The Voice of the Young in a Climate Emergency Changing the Narrative from Children As Helpless Victims to Active Agents of Change

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The Voice of the Young in a Climate Emergency Changing the Narrative from Children As Helpless Victims to Active Agents of Change The voice of the young in a climate emergency Changing the narrative from children as helpless victims to active agents of change Linn Lindström Leister Human Rights Bachelor Thesis 15 credits Spring semester 2020 Supervisor: Ulrika Waaranperä Abstract This thesis aims to examine the role of children as agents of change in an urgent climate context. This thesis uses a normative method with an argumentative structure. The material is mainly based on secondary sources, with predominantly emphasis on the interests, concerns and rights of the child, their agency and intergenerational justice. This thesis argues for a shift in the perception of the child from helpless victims of climate change to active agents. With the use of intergenerational justice theory and children’s agency into the discourse of childhood studies and environmental studies, this thesis suggests that a updated perception on the role of children in the climate change context is needed to account for children’s right to participation and for the survival of the environment and the future of mankind. The thesis concludes that this issue is a matter of rights, future life, and justice. Key words: Children’s rights, Climate change, Agency, Vulnerability, Justice Wordcount: 12 714 2 Table of content 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Previous research ............................................................................................................ 5 1.2 Aim .................................................................................................................................. 6 1.2.1 Research question ......................................................................................................... 7 1.2.2 Sub-Question ................................................................................................................ 7 1.3 Theory and Method ......................................................................................................... 7 1.4 Relevance to Human Rights ............................................................................................ 7 1.5 Delimitations ................................................................................................................... 9 2. Background .......................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Climate change and global warming ............................................................................... 9 2.2 A child-centered approach ............................................................................................ 11 2.3 The Convention on the Rights of the Child .................................................................. 12 3. Theoretical framework ...................................................................................................... 13 3.1 Childhood agency .......................................................................................................... 13 3.2 Intergenerational justice ................................................................................................ 14 3.3 Vulnerability ................................................................................................................. 15 3.4 Resistance and Activism ............................................................................................... 15 4. Method and Material ......................................................................................................... 16 4.1 Material .............................................................................................................................. 17 5. Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 17 5.1 CRC and Article 12 ....................................................................................................... 18 5.2 Children’s agency in the context of climate change ..................................................... 19 5.3 Children and intergenerational justice .......................................................................... 23 5.4 Children as helpless victims .......................................................................................... 24 5.5 Children as active agents of change .............................................................................. 26 5.5.1 Children in adaptation strategies ........................................................................... 28 5.5.2 Children in activism and resistance ....................................................................... 29 6. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 31 6.1 The relevance of this conclusion ................................................................................... 32 6.2 Further research ............................................................................................................. 33 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 34 3 1. Introduction Climate change threatens the effective enjoyment of a range of human rights, including those to life, water and sanitation, food, health, housing, self-determination, culture, and development. States have a human rights obligation to prevent the imminent harmful effects of climate change and ensure that those affected by it, particularly those in vulnerable situations, have access to effective remedies and means of adaptation to enjoy lives of human dignity. (OHCHR, 2020) It has been widely recognized that children and young people are disproportionately affected by changes in their environment, due to their unique metabolism, physiology, and developmental needs. Changes in temperature, air and water quality and nutrition are likely to have more severe and long-term impacts on children’s health, development, and well-being. Because of their less developed physiology and immune systems, young children will experience most intensely the effects of climate change-related stresses. (OHCHR, 2017) Acknowledging this fact, and realizing the threats facing all life on the Earth and especially the lives, livelihoods and futures of current children, there has been a rise in awareness, resistance, and protests for the environment. Young climate activists have been raising their voice and protesting the streets for the environment and to push the State governments to deal with the urgent threat of climate change. Climate activism movements have been spread all over the world and they speak inclusively not only for their own lives and futures, but also for those not yet born, for endangered species and for fragile ecosystems. The voices of children and young have echoed with great enthusiasm and power for the sake of the planet and to put pressure on State governments to deal with the issue. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is designed to protect children both in times of normality and in disasters. The basic premise of the CRC is that children like all human beings, are born with fundamental freedoms and the inherent human rights. The Convention is often discussed in terms of its main principles: non-discrimination (Article 2); best interests of the child (Article 3); survival and development (Article 6); and child participation (Article 12). The Preamble emphasizes that all rights of the CRC are of equal significance. Several of the articles are particularly relevant to a changing climate. The resistance of children in relation to the climate emergency suggests that children possess knowledge, engagement, and power to act on environmental issues. The environmental resistance is very inclusive and gives voice to poor people, endangered species, and future generations. A key aspect of this resistance is the temporal aspect of the issue. It is not possible for children to escape in order to solve the problem of the climate emergency. In order to challenge the 4 dominant system, children’s abstract progressive resistance shows, first, that although children do not get recognition for their knowledge and power democratically, they can influence the political agenda and receive support and acceptance for their views also on major structural and global problems. (Holmberg & Alvinius, 2019) This research attempts to show that children and young adults can express major resistance, hold political agency and act as active agents of change in the context of climate emergency. Furthermore, this research is concerned with a series of questions relating to children’s agency in the climate change context. It allows for thinking through children’s and young people’s capacities to make a difference and the different ways in which children and young people have been and are actively involved in developing, groundbreaking, and substantive shapes of solidarity and coexistence. 1.1 Previous research Most often, the link between children, climate change and disasters have focused on two main narratives: vulnerability and protection. Vulnerability has been explored using statistics that focus on the specific vulnerability of children as an aggregate social group. Many studies focus on the high mortality and morbidity rates among children due to climate stresses and extreme weather events. There are a set of possible
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