A/HRC/43/30 other measures to prevent children from handling toxic substances or working in hazardous conditions. 102 The Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), of the International Labour Organization (ILO) recognizes work that harms children’s health as one of the worst forms of child labour and requires States to take immediate and effective measures to prohibit and eliminate labour practices harmful to child workers’ health or development (arts. 1 and 3). ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Recommendation, 1999 (No. 190), states that work in an unhealthy environment that may, for example, expose children to toxic substances, agents or processes is damaging to their health and that criminal penalties should apply.103 IV. States’ duties and businesses’ responsibilities 65. States have an obligation and businesses a responsibility to identify, prevent and mitigate children’s exposure to environmental health risks. 66. States must ensure that legislation, policies and programmes concerning business matters do not directly or indirectly discriminate against children, neither in content nor implementation, including by conducting impact assessments, collecting disaggregated data and establishing monitoring and investigative mechanisms.104 67. States must take all necessary, appropriate and reasonable measures to prevent businesses from causing or contributing to children’s rights abuses. 105 This includes ensuring they comply with all applicable environmental standards and regularly monitoring business activities’ environmental impacts that may affect children’s health, food security and access to safe water and sanitation.106 68. Children may face additional barriers to justice for environmental harm. Children and their representatives may lack information about the effects of particular harms or the effects may become manifest years after exposure, which may make it difficult or impossible to bring a case, comply with applicable statutes of limitation or fulfil requirements on burdens of proof and persuasion.107 States should remove such obstacles and ensure that effective collective complaints mechanisms are available, including by allowing collective suits and public interest litigation on behalf of children.108 69. States should conduct impartial and independent child rights impact assessments, and require businesses to perform child rights due diligence and identify, prevent and mitigate negative effects of their operations on children’s rights, including throughout their business relationships, supply chains and global operations.109 States must also ensure that information held by businesses relevant to children’s health and well-being is publicly available. Business responsibilities 70. As established in the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, businesses have a responsibility to respect children’s rights, including the right to a healthy environment, in the context of their operations. This responsibility exists independently of and should not diminish States’ obligations. 110 In its general comment No. 16, the Committee on the Rights of the Child elaborated on States’ obligations under the 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 32; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, art. 10; ILO Convention No. 182, arts. 1 and 3. Paras. 3 (d) and 13. Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 16, paras. 13–14. Ibid., para. 28. Ibid., general comment No. 15, para. 49. www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CRC/Discussions/2016/DGDoutcomereport-May2017.pdf, pp. 21–22. A/HRC/37/58, para. 53. Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 16, paras. 62–65 and 78–81. A/HRC/17/31. 13