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Youth Climate Justice Ph.D. Researcher Liesl Muller presents at PhD Conference.
Youth Climate Justice PhD Researcher Liesl Muller presented on child/youth climate justice and how there are an increasing number of climate cases taken by children and youth.
Every year CREAN (Children’s Rights European Academic Network) holds a PhD Symposium to provide the opportunity for those researching children’s rights to present on their work. This year the symposium was themed "Critical Approaches to Children’s Rights." It was hosted by the University of Antwerp in collaboration with CREAN and the Children's Rights Knowledge Centre on December 4th and 5th, 2023.
CREAN’s annual event supports doctoral candidates from diverse disciplines, such as law, sociology, education and anthropology. The symposium aims to facilitate the discussion of research on children's rights. It provides a forum for ideas and discourse. PhD researchers are obliged to have their supervisors attend with them, and together PhD researchers and supervisors discuss and reflect upon children’s rights themes. The Youth Climate Justice's Prinicpal Investigator Professor Aoife Daly attended with Liesl, Liesl is also supervised by UCC's Professor Ursula Kilkelly.
Liesl presented on child/youth climate justice and how there are an increasing number of climate cases taken by children and youth. She shared a case study from the South African context where its first child and youth led climate litigation is currently before the courts. With the #CancelCoal campaign children are aiming to stop the government from implementing its plans for new coal fired power. This. and other cases globally, is changing the way we see children in society leading to a change in their level of access to rights generally. We are entering an era of post-paternalism in children's rights and children are leading the way.