General Comment 26 on 'Children's Rights and the Environment With a Special Focus on Climate Change' : its potential for human rights climate change litigation in South Africa

Abstract

Climate change poses an unprecedented threat to human rights with children being among the most vulnerable. There have been significant developments in international human rights law in recent years to respond to the challenges of climate change, including, with respect to children. General Comment 26 on Children’s Rights and the Environment with a Special Focus on Climate Change from the Committee on the Rights of the Child is one such document. The Comment aims to provide authoritative guidance to the interpretation of several mutually reinforcing and interdependent children’s rights in the Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as in the lexicon of climate justice principles. This article critical analyses the Comment to assist climate justice activists and litigators in South Africa, who are increasingly turning to human rights climate change litigation in response to the climate crisis. Such a critical analysis aims to highlight where the Comment can aid more transformative interpretations of the rights in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, and the principles relevant to climate justice as well as indicate instances where the Comment may be insufficient to this task.