Climate Change and Children’s Rights

At this seminar, Rebecca Veneziano will present her ongoing research, examining the relationship between climate change, children’s rights, and the protection of traditional and cultural dimensions in situations of climate-induced displacement. The presentation will be followed by comments and discussion with scholars in environmental law, children’s rights, and other colleagues with related research interests.

About the speaker

Rebecca Livia Veneziano is a PhD Candidate at Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa (Italy). She is currently a visiting researcher at the Stockholm Center for the Rights of the Child at the Stockholm University. Her research interests focus on comparative constitutional law, human and fundamental rights (mainly of children and vulnerable categories), the protection of cultural rights, legal mechanisms for balancing competing interests and the challenges of reconciling globally shared norms with diverse cultural perspectives.

Seminar abstract

In the seminar, Rebecca Livia Veneziano will present her ongoing research on the cultural dimension of children's rights in climate-induced displacement. She will explore the impact of climate change on children's fundamental rights under the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, focusing on a systematically neglected dimension: cultural rights.

While approximately one billion children live in high climate-risk countries, existing legal frameworks tend to address climate-displaced minors primarily through the lens of physical vulnerability, leaving their cultural identity in the shadow.

Climate-induced displacement threatens children's ties to the territories where their cultural self is formed. This harm is prospective and often irreversible: unlike adults, who may lose an already formed identity, children risk losing the very possibility of forming one. This is particularly critical for minors belonging to strongly place-based cultures.

The seminar will address and reflect on these challenges, the fragmented nature of the existing international legal framework, and potential pathways towards a more inclusive and substantive protection of the cultural dimension of climate-displaced children.

The seminar will be conducted in English.

We warmly welcome colleagues, researchers, and doctoral candidates with an interest in the topic to attend. Light refreshments will be provided for registered participants.

Registration

Please register via this Registration link no later than May 15th.

Best regards,
The Stockholm Environmental Law and Policy Centre and the Stockholm Centre for Rights of the Child