38 Boshoff/Protecting the African child in a changing climate engage with the issue of refugees and displaced persons, except in a negative sense, to the extent of underlining that measures should be put in place to ensure that migration does not result in exacerbated inequalities and challenges to peace and security.51 It therefore does not contain a proactive initiative to aid in the movement of those who may need it the most, including climate refugees. This is in stark contrast to the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants and the subsequent Roadmap adopted by the United Nations in 2016, which provides for the detailed protections for refugees and migrants.52 This Declaration clearly and explicitly addresses the concerns of children and particularly girls who are migrants or refugees. It also provides for protection for ‘the human rights of all refugees and migrants, regardless of status’ (emphasis added), which, while not directly recognising climate refugees, may at least go some way towards a wider and more inclusive definition of refugees. UNICEF particularly calls on states ‘in the absence of an international legal framework that grants legal status and protection to these vulnerable migrants – and recognising that many children will be displaced or migrate internally’ to ensure that the ‘humanitarian, sustainable development, climate change, migration and disaster risk reduction frameworks’ that they adopt are based on children’s rights and the best interest of the child is central to all decisions affecting them.53 In this regard UNICEF identifies the best practice of the Children’s Emergency Relief and Protection Act54 in the Philippines as being ground-breaking national legislation, since it has a dual focus, on preventing displacement and in protecting the rights of children who have through necessity been displaced.55 In order to achieve the protection of these rights, the law includes a ‘child-focused Comprehensive Emergency Program that guarantees the delivery of basic needs, the establishment of evacuation centres and transitional centres for orphaned, separated and unaccompanied children, increased protection against child trafficking, exploitation and violence’, as well as aiming to ‘minimise the time children spend without important documentation and education’, and improved data collection on affected children.56 3.5 Participation and access to information Children are not just the victims of climate change induced risks, but also have an important role to play in finding solutions to the issues we 51 Ghana Business News ‘AU on free movement of people and goods and its implications on peace and security in Africa’ 27 February 2017, https://www. ghanabusinessnews.com/2017/02/27/au-on-free-movement-of-people-and-goods-andits-implications-on-peace-and-security-in-africa/. 52 United Nations ‘New York Declaration’ http://refugeesmigrants.un.org/declaration. 53 UNICEF (n 11 above) 24. 54 Republic Act No. 10821. 55 As above. 56 As above.