Children’s rights and climate action: Assessing the suitability of South Africa’s domestic normative framework

Abstract

South Africa boasts one of the most progressive, elaborate and consultative climate governance frameworks in the Global South. However, children, who are among the groups most acutely affected by climate change, remain largely invisible to the country’s climate law, policy and decision-making architecture. This article examines South Africa’s normative framework to determine whether it adequately protects and promotes children’s rights in the context of climate action. The article argues that, despite robust constitutional guarantees and binding international and regional obligations, such as those under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the existing framework does not systematically integrate children’s rights into the country’s climate response. The article draws on these normative standards and the guiding principles of non-discrimination, the best interests of the child, child participation, access to information, impact assessment and the right to life, survival and development to assess South Africa’s domestic law and policy. The article concludes that significant normative and practical gaps persist and proposes targeted reforms to embed children’s rights at the centre of climate governance, thereby advancing equitable, effective and intergenerationally just climate action in South Africa.