A/HRC/35/13 centred programme on disaster risk reduction for 2017-2021 that would focus on capacitybuilding in mitigating the impacts of recurring weather risks on children. 70 45. Indonesia has linked its Child Friendly Cities initiative with climate change and disaster risk reduction objectives by piloting a child-centred climate risk assessment method.71 In its development cooperation policy, Germany has committed to protecting the best interests of the child and has allocated funding for climate change adaptation, resilience and disaster risk reduction projects involving children and young people. 72 At the national level, Slovakia implements the Convention of the Rights of the Child through its national plan of action for children, which is taken into account in climate policies. 73 C. Litigation 46. While future generations lack clear legal standing under international law, domestic developments highlight ways in which their interests can be protected through climate change policies and litigation. Some national constitutions have included references to future generations in their provisions on environmental rights. Article 33 of the Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, for example, enshrines the right to a healthy, protected and balanced environment to enable the development of individuals and collectives of present and future generations. While explicitly referencing future generations, as the Plurinational State of Bolivia has done, could provide a basis for climate litigation directly on behalf of those generations, this may not be explicitly necessary to protect their interests. Climate litigation by today’s children has the potential to safeguard the interests of the next generations, and a legal basis for such litigation exists in many countries. For example, in Azerbaijan, articles 30 and 38 of the Law on child rights ensure protection and emergency support to children affected by natural disasters, and article 39 of the Constitution guarantees redress for damages caused by environmental impacts. 47. In some countries, children and their representatives have already engaged in environmental litigation. In Minors Oposa v. Secretary of the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources, the Supreme Court of the Philippines ruled on behalf of a class representing children that the State had an intergenerational responsibility to maintain a clean environment. In Gbemre v. Shell Petroleum Nigeria Limited and Others, a Nigerian court ordered Shell Petroleum to take immediate steps to cease gas flaring, which contributed to respiratory diseases, greenhouse gas emissions and agricultural problems. It found that gas flaring violated the rights to human dignity and life guaranteed in the Nigerian Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. In the United States of America, a group of 21 plaintiffs between the ages of 9 and 20 have filed suit against the federal Government alleging that inadequate climate change mitigation measures constitute a violation of their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property, among others. 74 Precedents such as these demonstrate the potential role of the judicial system in protecting children from harmful activities, including those that contribute to climate change. D. Engagement by human rights mechanisms 48. National human rights institutions, the human rights treaty bodies and the special procedures and universal periodic review of the Human Rights Council can all play a role in protecting children’s rights from the impacts of climate change. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, for example, is currently drafting a general 70 71 72 73 74 See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/ClimateChange/RightsChild/Update14.3 /StatementPanelCCandrightsofthechildHEMHAKimNgoc.pdf. Input from UNICEF. Input from Germany. Input from Slovakia. Juliana et al. v. United States of America et al. See Our Children’s Trust (www.ourchildrenstrust.org/us/federal-lawsuit/). 13