Project News
New Book: "The Rights of Children and Youth in the Climate Crisis: Action and Litigation"
We are delighted to announce the publication of our new book, (Routledge, 2026), authored by Aoife Daly, Florencia Paz Landeira, and Liesl Muller as part of the Youth Climate Justice project at UCC.
What the book is about
The climate crisis is not only an environmental emergency — it is a children's rights crisis. Nearly every right enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is under strain as the planet warms: health, education, play, development, and participation. Yet children and young people are not waiting for adults to act on their behalf. They are organising, advocating, and litigating — reshaping legal and political norms in the process.
This book examines that dual reality. It maps how international human rights law applies to children in the context of the climate crisis, and it documents the remarkable ways in which young people are stepping into roles as rights-makers, not just rights-holders. From local climate assemblies to the halls of COP, from national courtrooms to the drafting of General Comment No. 26 of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, young advocates are challenging paternalistic assumptions and co-creating the standards that will define their futures.
The book also presents a comprehensive analysis of 81 climate cases involving children and youth around the world, tracing patterns of litigation, procedural challenges, and the broader social and legal impact of these cases — even when they do not succeed in court.
At the heart of the argument is a concept we call postpaternalism: the idea that we have entered a new era in which children and youth are taking action on a global scale, rather than relying on adults to grant them their rights. This shift has consequences not only for children's rights but for human rights more broadly.
The book features a foreword by Prof. Ann Skelton, former Chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, who led the adoption of General Comment No. 26 on children's rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change.
About the authors
Aoife Daly is Professor of Law at ÍíÉϸ£ÀûÔÚÏß¹Û¿´ Cork and Principal Investigator of the Youth Climate Justice project, funded by a European Research Council Consolidator Grant (2023–2028). She specialises in human rights law and children's rights.
Florencia Paz Landeira is a postdoctoral researcher with the Youth Climate Justice project at UCC. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the National University of San MartÃn, Argentina, and her research focuses on childhood policies and children's rights within the context of the climate crisis and situated socio-environmental conflicts.
Liesl Muller is a PhD researcher with the Youth Climate Justice project at UCC. She holds two LLM degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Pretoria, and is an attorney of the High Court of South Africa, practising at the Centre for Child Law in strategic litigation on social justice issues involving children and youth.
Book launch — 21 May
Join us for the launch on Wednesday, 21 May, 3:00–4:00 pm in the Dora Allman Room, UCC. Prof. Conor O'Mahoney and Sumaya Mohammed will host a conversation with the authors, followed by drinks and informal discussion.
The book will also be available open access online — we will share the link as soon as it is live.
Register here:
All are welcome — we look forward to seeing you there.
This book is part of the Youth Climate Justice project, funded by the European Union (European Research Council, Grant No. 101088453). The views expressed are the authors' own.