A/HRC/37/58 12. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has also given increasing attention to the relationship of environmental protection and children’s rights. The Committee often addresses environmental concerns in its review of country reports under the Convention.3 At its day of general discussion on 23 September 2016, the Committee brought together over 250 participants, including children, representatives of Governments, civil society organizations, United Nations agencies and academics, to examine the effects of environmental harm on the rights of children, both directly and through aggravating underlying causes of serious violations through conflict over limited resources, increasing inequalities, forced migration and even early marriage. 4 13. The Committee on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF, other special procedures, States and civil society organizations, among others, continue to study and clarify the relationship of children’s rights and the environment. The Special Rapporteur hopes that the present report will contribute to that ongoing discussion by providing an overview of the principal effects of environmental harm on the rights of children and outlining the corresponding obligations of States. III. The effects of environmental harm on the rights of children 14. This section describes first the effects of environmental harm on children’s wellbeing, and then how those effects interfere with the enjoyment of their human rights, including their rights to life, health and development, to an adequate standard of living and to play and recreation. A. The effects of environmental harm on children 15. Taken as a whole, no group is more vulnerable to environmental harm than children (persons under the age of 18), who make up 30 per cent of the world’s population. Environmental harm has especially severe effects on children under the age of 5. Of the 5.9 million deaths of children under the age of 5 in 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than one quarter — more than 1.5 million deaths — could have been prevented through the reduction of environmental risks. 5 In addition, one quarter of the total disease burden in children under the age of 5 is attributed to environmental exposures.6 Childhood exposure to pollutants and other toxic substances also contributes to disabilities, diseases and premature mortality in adulthood. 1. Air pollution 16. Air pollution causes approximately 600,000 deaths of children under the age of 5 every year. 7 Countless more children suffer disease and disability, often with lifelong effects. Children are more susceptible to air pollution than adults for many reasons, including that their smaller respiratory airways are more easily blocked by infections, and that they breathe more quickly and take in more air per unit of body weight. 8 Because their 3 4 5 6 7 8 The Special Rapporteur compiled statements of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on environmental issues in “Mapping human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment: individual report on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child” (December 2013). Available at http://srenvironment.org/mapping-report-2014-2/. Committee on the Rights of the Child, “Report of the 2016 day of general discussion: children’s rights and the environment”, p. 5. Available from www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRC/Pages/Discussion2016.aspx. WHO, “Don’t pollute my future! The impact of the environment on children’s health” (Geneva, 2017), p. 1. Ibid., p. 22. Ibid., p. 3. Roughly 500,000 of these deaths are attributed to household air pollution and 100,000 to ambient air pollution. See UNICEF, Clear the air for children: The impact of air pollution on children (2016), p. 24. UNICEF, Clear the air for children, pp. 8 and 40. 5