Community leaders were invited to UWC to discuss children’s rights and climate change.

The Children’s Rights Project of UWC’s Dullah Omar Institute organised a conversational workshop on children’s rights and climate change. The event, under the banner of the African Children’s Rights Project, is funded by the Swedish Development Agency (SIDA).

Delegates have called for young voices to be amplified by activists, allies and community leaders in climate change advocacy.

The group, composed of community leaders, religious leaders, early childhood development (ECD) teachers and grassroots activists, agreed that more needs to be done to include children and young adults in leading the fight against climate change. The conversational workshop builds on the understanding that climate change severely impacts local communities, and community leadership plays a critical role in raising awareness and designing innovative and scalable solutions to the crisis. 

Dr Rongedzayi Fambasayi, a post-doctoral researcher with the Dullah Omar Institute, said children and young people require safeguards from community leadership and need to be given a platform to voice concerns and help with solutions. 

“The impact of climate change is huge in the early years for young people. Those who can’t explain climate change themselves, because they are still in ECD, but it’s impacting them. Either it’s too cold in the classroom or it’s extremely hot, and they cannot concentrate; either way; the impact on young people in early years is huge,” he said.

The delegates who attended the UWC Community Leaders Conversational Training Workshop on Children’s Rights and Climate Change. Image: Supplied

Liesl Muller, a senior attorney from the Centre for Child Law at the University of Pretoria, agreed and said children need allies: “The children’s rights that I am very interested in right now and researching are the child’s right to be heard and to present their views, and to be given a platform. As you know, children don’t vote, but they are very interested in climate change. My research data is young people till 25 years old…. and children and young people are very interested in engaging and finding climate solutions.”

She added that young people need intergenerational allyship and asked: “How do we empower children and young people to do the work that they want to do, and how do we listen better and facilitate the good work that they are already doing?”

Using local leadership in climate change activism is a personal fight for Nkosikhona Swaartbooi, from the group Movement for CARE, who also attended the workshop. In 2021, Swartbooi’s nephew, two-year-old Imthande Swartbooi, drowned after falling into an uncovered manhole in Khayelitsha. “Two hours later, the municipality came and actually closed the lid of that manhole. This left me with some anger because, as an activist, I’ve worked in the space and advocated for clean and safe sanitation,” said Swartbooi. He added: “Over time, I realised that fighting for my nephew's justice, it is not only my nephew who has suffered and died in that tragic manner but also there's many other kids who have also suffered the same way right because of the environment and because of the fact that there aren't safe playing environments for children.”

He leads a project called “The Right to Play” campaign and says climate change has the same detrimental effect as poor infrastructure on children’s right to safe play spaces. 

“If you look at the state of the play parks currently, you'll find dead dogs, dead animals and broken glass. You'll find that even the environment there, the trees that are planted, and the grass that is supposed to grow in that space, it's actually now starting to become harmful to the children who have to play there,” said Swartbooi. 

The consensus after the workshop was that there is an urgent need to mainstream a child-rights perspective in local climate governance in South Africa and in Africa by enabling and empowering local communities to drive innovation and solutions. 

Children constitute a large portion of the region’s population, and climate shocks threaten their health, development and prospects. Without prompt action, climate change will entrench inequalities: more children will suffer malnutrition, disease, loss of education, displacement and other violations of their rights. 

Millions of children living in informal settlements, rural areas, refugee camps and conflict-affected regions face increased risks from climate change.