Avaliação: ¿Niños o Generaciones futuras? El rol de niños y niñas en los debates contemporáneos en las Américas – Childs as a legal proxy for the protection of the rights of future generations

Intergenerational equity has long been discussed in doctrine, but the concept did not reach a binding status under international law. Indeed, future generations’ interests are enshrined in preambles or declarative instruments, but their rights are not legally protected. Effective protection of the rights of future generations will depend on the extent of their recognition in national legal systems, and the ability of people or organization to stand for them, notably in courts. Several States created a commission, a council or a commissioner, who shall, in fulfilling its mandate, promote the interests of future generations and intergenerational equity (New Zealand, Finland, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Malta. Some existed only for few years: in France, Israel, and Australia). Nevertheless, these institutions lack power to effectively protect future generations’ rights because they only have advisory and consultative functions, and cannot stand for future generations in judicial processes. Even if no existing institutions can stand for future generations, young living generations could work as a proxy. The 1993 decision of the Supreme Court of the Philippine gave some hope in this context. Based on Article II of the Philippines Constitution, the Court recognized standing to a group of children to represent themselves but also generations to come. Nevertheless, since then, no national court has followed this path (notably in the 2013 Urgenda case in the Netherlands). This article will study legal ability of children to stand for the rights of future generations. We will analyse this question based on positive law of different states around the world.

• future generations + rights + children + legal standing