"Right to development of children and future generations – Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to development" (HRC/57/4324 July 2024

VII. Conclusions and recommendations

A. Conclusions

87. Despite the growing awareness and evolution of children’s rights standards
human rights and child development, millions of children in all regions of the world remain
to miss out on a dignified life and an environment in which they can realize their potential. Children
continue to struggle with malnutrition, live in poverty and are deprived of access to basic services.
needs, are trafficked for sexual or economic exploitation, experience violence in multiple forms
institutions and are excluded from most decision-making processes. COVID-19, conflicts
and climate change have exacerbated the challenges for children to meet their human needs.
rights, including the right to development.

88. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur proposes that States and other
Actors must apply a right to development lens to realize all human rights of children
in a holistic manner. They should prioritize five pillars of action to ensure continuous
Challenges in realizing the right to development of children: investing in children
development, nurturing responsible leadership, enabling participation, ensuring safety
and facilitating recovery.

89. Although children may be the closest relatives of future generations, they should not
confused or mixed up with future generations. Since the future of future generations
partly in the hands of the present generations, they may do nothing to
the ability of future generations to realize their human rights, including the right to
development. The Special Rapporteur recommends four policy changes to

87 Depletion and/or degradation of resources for future generations are problems that undermine the principle of
intergenerational equity attempts to address. See Edith Brown Weiss, “Intergenerational Equity in
international law”, Proceedings of the annual meeting (American Society of International Law),
part 81 (1987), pp. 127 and 128.
88 See https://www.nbim.no/en/the-fund/about-the-fund/.
89 See https://treasury.gov.au/intergenerational-report.

ecosystem that supports the human rights of future generations. First, the language of
rights (not needs or interests) should be used for future generations and the concept
of future generations should include all organisms – not just humans – that
will exist on earth in the future. Second, the principle of intergenerational equity
must be included in the impact assessment and human rights due diligence processes
and the precautionary principle must be followed. Thirdly, all current decisions
creators must create an enabling environment to encourage the participation of future
representatives of generations in decision making. Fourth, financial planning and
The budget must be reoriented to build economic capacity for future generations
to realize their right to development.

B. Recommendations

90. The Special Rapporteur recommends that States:

(a) Allocate the maximum possible resources to achieve the right to
development of children – especially those from ethnic minorities or other marginalized groups
groups – and to achieve all Sustainable Development Goals;
(b) Take effective measures to eradicate child labour, forced labour and child abuse.
marriage, human trafficking and domestic and/or sexual violence involving children;
(c) Strengthen institutions to prevent armed conflict and war and to
responsible actors responsible for violations of children’s human rights during
conflicts and wars;
(d) Ensure active, free and meaningful participation of children and
representatives of future generations in all policy-making and implementation decisions,
including those relating to the right to development, Sustainable Development
Goals, annual budgets, climate change, ocean management, new technologies, trade and
investment agreements and government debt;
(e) Make information available to children on important policies, issues of
national or international interest and development projects in an accessible and
child-friendly manner;
(f) Include children from diverse backgrounds in government delegations
involved in multilateral negotiations on various human rights, environmental or
climate issues and in regional and international forums related to these issues or the
Sustainable Development Goals;
(g) Adopt laws and policies to ensure that child human rights defenders
not experience threats, harassment or intimidation in carrying out their legitimate work;
(h) Establish child-friendly remedial mechanisms to enable effective action
violations of children’s human rights;
(i) Establish an institutional mechanism, such as appointing a
ombudsman or a minister for future generations, to promote the principle of
intergenerational equality in all government decisions;
(j) Addressing the continuing negative effects of the nuclear legacy in the world
world to protect the human rights of future generations.

91. The Special Rapporteur recommends that companies:

(a) Pay a living wage and create a family-friendly work environment to
parents and caregivers to fulfill their responsibilities to realize the right to development
of their children;
(b) Consult children, child rights defenders and child rights activists in a meaningful way
human rights experts in conducting human rights due diligence;
(c) Consider, as part of the human rights due diligence or impact assessment
processes, the negative impact of their activities on the human rights of future
generations and the precautionary principle;
(d) Ensure active, free and meaningful participation of children and
representatives of future generations and take into account intersectional effects while
developing new technologies and digital games;
(e) Provide financial and other resources to organizations dealing with child abuse.
development;
(f) Adopt responsible advertising practices towards and protect children
children and child rights defenders against online bullying and harassment;
(g) Establish child-friendly grievance mechanisms to deal with complaints
concerning violations of the human rights of children.

92. The Special Rapporteur recommends that multilateral development banks:

(a) Conduct an ex ante assessment of the impacts of project financing on the
human rights of children and future generations and include appropriate clauses in their
contracts to prevent, mitigate and remedy such effects;
(b) Provide subsidies and increase long-term low-interest financing for children
development, particularly for states in debt distress;
(c) Ensure their complaint mechanisms are tailored to the child so they can address the complaints
effectively handle complaints about violations of children’s human rights.

93. The Special Rapporteur recommends that national human rights institutions:

(a) Raising awareness of and promoting the human rights of children and
future generations, including through public inquiries;
(b) Establish advisory committees composed of a diverse group of children to
support their human rights work;
(c) Establish child-friendly recovery mechanisms to address rule violations.
human rights of children.

94. The Special Rapporteur recommends that the Secretary-General
special envoy for future generations to ensure that the human rights of future generations are respected.
generations are integrated into the work of all UN organizations and other
international and regional organizations.

95. The Special Rapporteur recommends that international financial institutions
taking an intersectional approach to engaging children and future representatives
generations in their strategic policy-making, annual meetings and important decisions.

96. The Special Rapporteur recommends that educational institutions develop
to promote responsible leadership skills in children and provide them with education to
respect for human rights, equality, diversity, democracy, peace and sustainability.

97. The Special Rapporteur recommends that school staff and childcare workers
ensuring that children from diverse backgrounds participate in their decision-making
processes and setting up child-friendly complaints mechanisms to deal with complaints
of children