The Fair Start Movement



The Fair Start Movement is a children's rights movement that advocates for intergenerational justice. It does so through equity-based birth entitlements to improve the environmental and social conditions into which children are born - using metrics like the Children's Rights Convention. The movement considers these entitlements a fundamental condition of self-determination, the basis for political legitimacy. Proposed investments include incentives for fertility delay, baby bonds, and climate migration funds to assist families relocating to safer areas that will be less impacted by the climate crisis. The Fair Start Movement has the potential to serve as a vehicle for climate reparations.

The concept of birth entitlements merges the objectives and goals of social justice, reproductive justice, and environmental justice, with their amount, use, and prioritization informed by concrete metrics centered on children's rights.

Legal Theory
The Fair Start Movement operates from the Zero Baseline Model, which suggests that theories of legitimacy and political obligation should prioritize intergenerational birth equity. This involves raising children according to principles that allow them to negotiate the terms of any social contract as free and equal individuals, rather than focusing solely on abstract considerations. The necessity to ensure an eco-social fair start in life is partly based on the recognition of ecocide and Earth overshoot as an existential threat to current and future generations.