The Rights of the Child in the Context of Climate Action: The Case of Bosa Wanche Kebele of Humbo Wereda of the Southern Region of Ethiopia

Abstract

The conditions of children’s rights amidst the implementation of carbon offsetting strategies in poor countries like Ethiopia effectively illustrate the doubly pronounced climate injustice that vulnerable segments of societies in poor countries experience. The purpose of this article is to show that the climate mitigation instruments that the global climate regime operationalizes not only fail to address the climate injustice the crisis manifests but also are, in and of themselves, not designed to address violations of the rights of vulnerable groups, especially children. Drawing on interviews, focus group discussions, survey data, and analysis of documents, it is shown that Humbo Afforestation/Reforestation Clean Development Mechanism project located in the newly created Southern Region of Ethiopia compromises several of the rights of the child protected under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and rights protected in the FDRE’s constitution through the enclosure of 2,728 hectares of mountainous land. The rights violated include such procedural rights as the right to participation, the right to seek and receive information, and the right to both administrative and legal remedy on the one hand and the right to adequate food, the right to education, and the right to health on the other. The paper argues that a Human Rights-Based Approach to climate action that upholds the principles of the Child Rights –Based Approach to climate mitigation policy could have helped resolve the climate change mitigation versus the respect and protection of human rights dilemma that the project is faced with. The paper concludes that the realization of the state’s obligation both to respect and protect existing human rights and assess the sustainable development contribution of the project, being guided by the Child Rights –Based Approach to climate mitigation, could have done away with the problem.