26 Boshoff/Protecting the African child in a changing climate with repercussions of negative impacts often manifesting over the course of a lifetime.11 In the African context children make up more than 40 per cent of the population.12 Furthermore, for physical and socially constructed reasons, the impact of climate change differs between girl children and boy children. For all of these reasons it is necessary to look specifically at the needs of children in a changing climate and the obligations that regional international law places on states to protect them. This article considers the particular vulnerability of the African child to a changing climate and examines the extent to which the existing rights of children, and where relevant rights of girl children specifically, are protected particularly in the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (African Children’s Rights Charter) and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (African Women’s Rights Protocol), address these vulnerabilities. At the same time, it considers some examples of international best practice to determine the extent to which the African human rights system can learn from this, in order to better protect the interests of the child on a continent bearing the brunt of a changing climate. The aim of this article, while firstly to gain a better understanding of the way in which the African child is particularly at risk of climate change, is mainly normative, and sets out to identify the challenges or gaps that exist in the rights themselves and in the implementation of the rights of children and considers some of the ways in which this may be improved, to ensure that the principle of the best interest of the child is complied with and the vulnerabilities of children, particularly girl children, are addressed. 2 CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE AFRICAN CHILD Intersectionality theory expounds that the lived experiences of people is the result of many factors, and that it is not possible to gain a full understanding of the situation of specific people without consideration of their intersecting identities. McGibben and McPherson explain it as follows: Identities, sometimes referred to as identity markers, intersect to compound oppression. Age, culture, (dis)ability, ethnicity, gender, immigrant status, race, sexual orientation, social class, and spirituality all denote social location, a powerful determinant of one’s access to the social and material necessities of life.13 the issue’ in The Future of Children (ed) (2016) Children and Climate change http:// www.futureofchildren.org/publications/journals/journal_details/index.xml?journalid= 86 (accessed 25 September 2016) 3, 4. 11 UNICEF UK ‘No place to call home: Protecting children’s rights when the changing climate forces them to flee’ 4. 12 World Bank ‘Population Ages 0-14 (per cent of total) data for 2016 indicates that 42per cent of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa were between ages 0 to 14 years. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.0014.TO.ZS?locations=ZG (accessed 12 October 2017). 13 E McGibben & C McPherson ‘Applying Intersectionality & Complexity Theory to Address the Social Determinants of Women’s Health’ (2011) 61.