Affiliations: [a] Professor of Global Environmental Law, Strathclyde Law School, The University of Strathclyde, UK; Director of the One Ocean Hub, Funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund of the UK Research and Innovation, UK
| [b] Lecturer in Law, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom; Affiliate Researcher, Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance, Strathclyde Law School, The University of Strathclyde, UK
Note: [+] Acknowledgement: This article has been prepared under the UKRI GCRF One Ocean Hub. The One Ocean Hub is collaborative research for sustainable development project funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) (Grant Ref: NE/ S008950/1). GCRF is a key component in delivering the UK AID strategy and puts UK-led research at the heart of efforts to tackle the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) to any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version arising from this submission. All websites were last accessed on 21 November 2022.
Abstract: The 2021 Glasgow Climate Pact brought the ocean into the international climate regime, and the 2022 Sharm el-Sheikh COP27 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has finally ushered the world into a special fund to respond to loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including on the human rights of present and future generations. But much remains to be clarified about how ocean-based mitigation, adaptation, finance and technology will contribute to inter-generational equity. To shed light on these issues, this article starts from the premise that the ocean is an essential but little-understood component of the interdependency between climate change and human rights. It is followed by an exploration of the importance of a healthy ocean for children’s human rights as a way to advance inter-generational equity under the 30-year-old (1992–2022) UNFCCC through systemic interpretation. The upcoming General Comment on children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change (General Comment No. 26) by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child presents an opportunity to clarify the role of existing international human rights obligations in strengthening intergenerational equity at the climate-ocean interface on the basis of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This appears vital to ensure coordination across intergovernmental bodies and national government departments to safeguard ocean-dependent children’s human rights through climate policy and action at different levels.
