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.

Signing Organizations

Agora Partnerships
Alana Institute
Alliance of Land
Amazon Watch
Asia Pacific Network of Environmental Defenders
Asia Young Indigenous Peoples Network
Associação de Jovens Engajamundo
Associação TRANSmoras
Barranquilla +20
Care About Climate
Centro de Pensamiento Autónomo y Popular (CEPAP)
Centro de pensamiento en derechos humanos, paz y economías propias
Centro de Estudos das Relações de Trabalho e Desigualdades
Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación y Desarrollo Alternativo U Yich Lu’um
Centre for Citizens Conserving Environment & Management (CECIC)
Child Rights International Network (CRIN)
Chilli App
Climate Cardinals
Climate Clock
Climate Justice for Rosa
Climate Live
Coletivo de Juventudes pela Ação Climática de Campina Grande/PB
Comisión Ambiental Nacional Indígena de Colombia Earth Alliance
Emory University
Entertainment + Culture Pavilion
Estación biológica Andes, Fundación Margarita y José
European Union Youth Sounding Board
Familia Natural
Feminist Flotilla4Change
Forested
Fundacion Barranquilla+20
Fundación Ciudadanía y Desarrollo
Fundación para la Conservación de la Vida Silvestre en Colombia (FCV)
Fundación Hablemos CO
Future Forward Development Initiative
FSC Indigenous Foundation Fridays for Future
Girls and Women in Renewable Energy Academy
Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature
Global Shapers Community
Grupo de jóvenes de la Asociación Nacional de Usuarios Campesinos
Guardianes de las Aves
IBON International
ICON Data and Learning Labs
If Not Us Then Who
Indigenous and Environmental Defenders
Instituto Oyá
Instituto Zé Claudio e Maria
INHAF Habitat Forum
Latin American Climate Lawyers Initiative for Mobilizing Action (LACLIMA)
Life of Pachamama
Loss & Damage Youth Coalition
Motum
Movimento Internacional de Juventudes
Movimento Cesar sin Fracking, Gas y Yacimientos no Convencionales
Move Northern Kenya Foundation
Movilizatorio
National Youth Climate Consortium
Palmares Lab
Plataforma Boliviana de Acción frente al Cambio Climático (PBACC)
OroVerde
Plataforma Boliviana Frente al Cambio Climático
Projeto Nós
Good Health Community Programmes
Rede Ecopsicologia – Saúde pessoal e planetária
Rede Sustentabilidade Vinhedo
Rotaract Ipiales
Sur Ambiental organización Socio Ambientalista
Sustenta Honduras
Save the Children
Terre des Hommes
The ClimAct Initiative
The Climate Mobility Community Action Network
Tropical Forest Foundation
Turkana Indigenous People Action for Development (TIPD)
UNESCO Center For Peace
University of Galway
Youth4Nature (Y4N)
Youth Climate Action Network Vietnam
Youthtopia Young Africans for Climate Action