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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Emily JonesORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
The idea that the environment must be protected for future generations has been gaining traction in recent years. This article argues that the concept of future generations, as deployed in international environmental law is, however, deeply exclusionary, with only some humans being envisaged as future generations. It is furthermore argued that the concept is anthropocentric in that it focuses only on human future generations. The article discusses whether the concept can be recast considering these critiques, deploying queer and decolonial approaches to do so. In particular, Indigenous understandings of future generations are highlighted as offering an alternative framing. The article concludes by arguing that legal concepts must be carefully designed to ensure the construction of a future whereby climate change and environmental degradation are addressed in an equitable and just way, providing three pathways that can be used to begin to reframe the concept of future generations accordingly.
Author(s): Jones E
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Human Rights and the Environment
Year: 2025
Volume: 16
Issue: 1
Pages: 4-48
Print publication date: 01/09/2025
Online publication date: 07/05/2025
Acceptance date: 25/02/2025
Date deposited: 28/02/2025
ISSN (print): 1759-7188
ISSN (electronic): 1759-7196
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
URL: https://doi.org/10.4337/jhre.2025.0005
DOI: 10.4337/jhre.2025.0005
ePrints DOI: 10.57711/4p60-5249
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