Protecting Children's Rights for Displaced Children during our Climate Crisis

It is estimated that children make up one-third of the world’s population. Nevertheless, they constituted 40 percent (49 million) of the 122.6 million forcibly displaced individuals in 2024. This blog post analyses a case study of 39 Ethiopian children detained in Zambia in 2016 due to their “consent to being smuggled”, and examines the challenge of protecting children’s rights in times of forced displacement. In light of the increasingly intertwined relationship between forced displacement and the climate crisis, action in terms of protecting children’s rights in this context is imperative at both domestic and international levels. The analysis concludes with a call for meaningful youth engagement and participation at the political level, drawing on insights from the Conferences of Parties (COP) that have signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).