The Global South raises its voice on the road to COP30

Youth, children, and adolescents demand real climate justice, effective participation, and intergenerational decision-making for a sustainable future.

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Why a declaration from the Global South?

Youth from the Global South not only face the consequences of the climate crisis, but also have the power to transform it. This Declaration emerges from a collective process led by children, adolescents, and young people from Latin America, Africa, Asia, and other regions historically excluded from global climate decision-making.

The Declaration demands that youth from the Global South have binding participation in global socio-environmental governance, recognizing the diversity of their contexts, knowledge, and needs, and their right to effectively influence decisions that affect their future.

Strategic objectives

  • Demand binding, not symbolic, participation
  • Place the territorial and contextual realities of the Global South at the center of negotiations
  • Advance a decolonial, intersectional, and justice-focused climate agenda

Children, Adolescents, and Youth Affirm

  • Full, equitable, inclusive, effective participation with a gender perspective in socio-environmental decision-making is a right.
  • The importance of decentralization and territorialization of governance as a key to reducing inequalities
  • The importance of corporate accountability and regulation
  • The need to guarantee protection and security for environmental defenders
  • The importance of training and educational spaces that ensure democratic access to socio-environmental information

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PRINCIPLES

  • Recognition and autonomy, grounded in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 12), demands that children not only be heard but also be recognized as autonomous actors capable of freely expressing opinions on all matters affecting their present and future. Their participation must not be reduced to symbolic or instrumental representation.
  • Principle of inclusion, diversity, and non-discrimination, aligned with Article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), ensures that: “All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law.” In this regard, the law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee equal and effective protection against discrimination on grounds such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status, thus preventing structural exclusion.
  • Principle of non-instrumentalization, grounded in Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and in section C.6.3 of the IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report (2023), emphasizes that effective multilevel governance for mitigation, adaptation, risk management, and climate-resilient development is achieved through inclusive decision-making processes that prioritize equity and justice in planning and implementation, allocate adequate resources, and include institutional review, monitoring, and evaluation.
  • Principle of continuous critical education and training, which enables understanding the complexity of socio-environmental problems and strengthens leadership for effective advocacy.
  • Principle of protection and security for environmental defenders, in line with the Escazú Agreement (Article 9), mandates that those involved in environmental governance must be protected from reprisals, threats, or any form of violence.
  • Principle of intergenerational and multisystemic knowledge dialogue, which recognizes the need for respectful dialogue among diverse knowledge systems, promoting the co-creation of solutions rooted in plurality and cultural respect.
  • Principle of transparency and accountability, aimed at guaranteeing the principles of socio-environmental governance and the legitimacy of decision-making processes.