A/HRC/21/48 30. Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child stipulates that States parties recognize “the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health.” It further states that States parties “shall strive to ensure that no child is deprived of his or her right of access to such health care services.” In the same vein, article 32 of the Convention provides for Sates parties to recognize “the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.” Impact of hazardous substances from extractive industries on women 31. Maternal health is severely affected by exposure to hazardous substances, especially during the already immune-challenged gestation period. The Special Rapporteur is alarmed at the discovery of elevated inorganic mercury levels in the breast milk of mothers in several countries. He is concerned that this may diminish the right to life of the infant, reduce the practice of breastfeeding and increase the likelihood for women of diseases associated with exposure to these substances. 32. Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is a demanding, dangerous and often only marginally profitable sector for women; and job opportunities in ASM, even more than larger-scale mining, can increase the burden of work for women both outside and inside the home. In some cases, women experience the impacts of ASM differently, either because of their sex – their biological characteristics as a female –, but more often because of their gender – their sociocultural definition as women.25 For instance, more often than not, it is women who tend the gardens or plots of land and grow the food, and so women are disproportionately impacted by loss or displacement of land. While alternative land may be provided, often it is further away and requires extra work for it to be as productive as the land that was taken away. This adds to women’s work, as they must find the time and energy to tend the replacement land. 33. Article 25, paragraph 2, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights underscores that “motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance” under the right to health. Furthermore, article 11, paragraph 1 (f), of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women provides for “the right to protection of health and to safety in working conditions, including the safeguarding of the function of reproduction.” The Special Rapporteur emphasizes that due to the harmful effects of mercury on the female reproduction function, international human rights law requires States parties to put in place preventive measures and programmes to protect women of childbearing age from mercury exposure. B. Right to adequate food and nutrition 34. Due to the disposal of hazardous substances and waste from extraction activities resulting in contaminated agricultural soils, pollution continues even when production stops. Ingestion is another major path of exposure to hazardous substances and waste that has implications on the right to health. Most human exposure to methylmercury is through the consumption of seafood. Methylmercury which is naturally produced from elemental mercury in the environment does not degrade. It bio-accumulates in fish and other organisms, and biomagnifies in larger animals in the food chain, and cooking has no effect 25 10 World Bank, Gender Dimensions of the Extractive Industry: Mining for Equity, Extractive Industries and development Series #8 (August 2009).