Bonavero Discussion Group: Children's Access to International Justice
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This event will take place in person at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. You may also join online via Zoom, please register for online attendance via Zoom.
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In April 2024 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) announced three judgements – Klima Seniorinnen v Switzerland,[1] Duarte Agostinho v Portugal and 32 Others,[2] and Carême v France.[3] All three concerned the issue of how climate change was affecting our lives. Yet, the applicants bringing the cases were different. Whilst the retired ladies forming the NGO Klima Seniorinnen celebrated their victory in front of the Court, having just secured a judgment finding Switzerland in violation of its Convention obligations, next to them stood groups of young people, who were unsuccessful in persuading the Court that their claim was admissible. This was the second child-led high-profile case relating to climate change at the international level that had been unsuccessful. The first, Sacchi et al. v Argentina et al., was brought to the Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC Committee). It was also ruled inadmissible.
The repeated failure of children to access justice on climate related cases, stumbling at the admissibility hurdle, prompted the question ‘Is it appropriate that children seeking justice must fulfil the same criteria as adults: criteria developed for adults, by adults?’
Reflecting on admissibility criteria for accessing justice at the international level, the case law of the UNCRC Committee, and literature on childhood and access to justice, this paper examines whether current practice at the international level meets best practice guidance, including that set out by the UNCRC Committee in their current draft General Comment on access to justice.
This workshop will share the findings of quantitative and qualitative research on this topic, and discuss the project paper.
[1] Verein Klimaseniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland, App no 53600/20 (ECtHR, 9 April 2024).
[2] Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and 32 Others, App no. 39371/20 (ECtHR, 9 April 2024).
[3] Carême v. France, App no. 7189/21 (ECtHR, 9 April 2024).
Speakers
Dr Naomi Lott is Lecturer in Law at the University of Reading, and was previously both John Fell Research Fellow and ECR Postdoctoral Fellow at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights (2022-2024). Naomi is a leading children’s rights academic, with particular expertise on children’s right to play. Her work on the right to play is informing the work of third sector organisations, national debates on children’s rights, play and wellbeing across the UK and internationally, and is influencing the work of schools and healthcare organisations.
Rachel is in her final year of DPhil studies at the University of Oxford. Her thesis focuses on international children’s rights law. She has various publications to her name, predominantly within the area of children’s rights law. Rachel has worked on numerous research projects during her time at Oxford. She has assisted on several consultancies for UNICEF. She has also presented at international conferences and has legal practice experience in the family law area.
Veronika Fikfak is a Professor of Human Rights and International Law at University College London. Veronika’s research focuses on reparations and compensation in international law, execution and enforcement of international judgments, automation and human rights, access to human rights justice, children's claims in climate litigation, and system design. She is a member of the UN Human Rights Advisory Committee, an ad hoc judge at the European Court of Human Rights and a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
Discussants
Başak Çalı is head of research at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights and Professor of International Law. Previously, she was professor of international law and founding director of the Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School, Berlin. She holds a permanent visiting professorship from the I-Courts Centre for Excellence at the University of Copenhagen and is a fellow the University of Essex Human Rights Centre and the Hertie School. She has held visiting professorships in Ankara, Oslo, Paris, and Natolin and serves on the board of a number of journals.
Her expertise concerns international law and human rights. She has published widely in the fields of authority of international law, standards of review in international law, the relationship between international law and domestic law, European human rights law, UN human rights law and comparative international human rights law. She has pioneered the study of bad faith violations of human rights law (Wisconsin International Law Journal, 2018), and is the author of 'Authority of International Law: Obedience, Respect and Rebuttal' (OUP 2015), editor of International Law for International Relations (OUP, 2010), co- editor of Legalisation of Human Rights: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Human Rights and Human Rights Law (Routledge 2006), Migration and the European Convention on Human Rights (OUP, 2021) and Secondary Rules of Primary Importance: Standards of Review, Causality, Evidence and Attribution before International Courts and Tribunals (OUP, 2022).
Dr Martin Scheinin served as British Academy Global Professor at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights between 2020-2025. During his time at the Institute, he worked on the project “Addressing the Digital Realm through the Grammar of Human Rights Law” and contributed to teaching, supervision and Bonavero Reports. He is a part-time professor of international human rights Law at the European University Institute and at Lund University.
