A/HRC/43/30 I. Introduction 1. In its resolution 40/14, the Human Rights Council decided to focus the next annual meeting on the rights of the child on the theme “Realizing the rights of the child through a healthy environment” and requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report on that matter in cooperation with all stakeholders. A broad consultation process was performed, through which submissions were received from States, United Nations entities, national human rights institutions and civil society organizations.1 The present report builds upon the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s recommendations, the reports of the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes,2 the Special Rapporteur on human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment3 and the analytical study of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the relationship between climate change and the full and effective enjoyment of the rights of the child.4 2. Environmental damage, climate change and childhood exposure to pollution and toxic wastes present an urgent challenge affecting all children’s rights. Environmental degradation continues to occur globally due to worsening climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss and the pollution and deterioration of the Earth’s air, land and water resources. 5 A lack of clean air and water, exposure to hazardous chemicals and waste, the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss prevent children from enjoying their rights today and in the future, as their lifelong health outcomes, well-being and development are compromised.6 3. Children are uniquely susceptible to health-related harm from an unhealthy environment due to the physical and mental developmental differences from adults. Every year an estimated 1.7 million children under the age of 5, a quarter of all infant deaths worldwide, die prematurely from modifiable environmental factors, especially air and water pollution and poor sanitation.7 Twelve million children in developing countries experience permanent brain damage due to lead poisoning and approximately 85 million children worldwide work in hazardous conditions and are regularly exposed to toxic substances causing brain damage and disease.8 4. Children bear a disproportionate share of the burden and are subject to immediate and long-term impacts of the effects of climate change and toxic and pollutant exposure, resulting in disease, impairments and mortality.9 Children’s exposure levels to toxicants and pollutants are much higher than adults as they have faster metabolic rates, proportionally consume more water and food and breathe more air.10 As their bodies, particularly their nervous and reproductive systems, are still developing, such exposure can have lifelong impacts. Because these effects are often irreversible, they violate children’s rights to life, development, health, food, water, housing, culture, play and education, among others. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2 All submissions are available from www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Children/ThematicReports/ Pages/RightsHealthyEnvironment.aspx. A/HRC/33/41. A/HRC/37/58. A/HRC/35/13. www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24738&LangID=E; World Health Organization (WHO), Inheriting a Sustainable World?: Atlas on Children’s Health and the Environment (Geneva, 2017). Ibid. WHO, Don’t Pollute My Future! The Impact of the Environment on Children’s Health, (Geneva, 2017), p. 1. Ibid. A/HRC/33/41. Catherine Karr, “Children’s environmental health in agricultural settings”, Journal of Agromedicine, vol. 17, No. 2 (2012), p. 128.