A/HRC/36/41 disease and disability clearly point to environmental contributions. exposure are demonstrated to lead to improved health outcomes.13 12 Reductions in Physical and mental integrity 12. In order to uphold the right to physical and mental integrity, States are required to take positive measures to protect everyone from exposure to hazardous substances. This right encapsulates the right of all human beings, including children, to autonomy and selfdetermination over their own body; a non-consensual intrusion upon the physical or mental integrity of the person could be considered a human rights violation. 13. This right is well established under international human rights law, including all regional human rights instruments, 14 although underrecognized in the context of toxics. For example, States must protect children from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, and neglect or negligent treatment. 15 Exposure to hazardous substances can be a violent act. In accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (art. 37), the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (art. 2) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (art. 7), States are required to protect against torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.16 14. While the right to physical and mental integrity has traditionally been raised in connection with incarceration, interrogation and medical experimentation, this right is implicated by exposure of humans to toxics. Although cases of acute poisoning and high levels of intoxication present an unquestionable violation of the right to physical integrity, the right also extends to protection against chronic, low-level exposure to toxic substances.17 Today, children are born “pre-polluted” by dozens, if not hundreds, of toxic chemicals. 18 Every day, everyone is chronically exposed to a multitude of hazardous substances in food, water and air, without their consent. In some areas, typically lowerincome communities, exposure rates are extreme. Non-discrimination 15. States must never discriminate on the basis of income, age, race, colour, ethnicity, gender, religion, origin, disability, or other status. Equality and non-discrimination is fundamental to human rights law. 19 All individuals are equal as human beings and, by virtue of this and the inherent dignity of each person, must have equal protection from toxics. 16. The adverse impacts of toxics on the poor, the young, older persons, minorities, indigenous peoples and other vulnerable groups are unequal, and the different genders are affected in different ways (see section II.B below). In addition to double standards of protection within countries, there are double standards of protection between countries, particularly between developing and industrialized countries, which are often exploited by businesses with global supply and value chains. The transfer of toxic production and disposal processes to the marginalized or the less fortunate is of grave concern. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 See, for example, www.epa.gov/ace. See, for example, A/HRC/33/41, para. 66 (citing S.D. Grosse and others). See, for example, the American Convention on Human Rights, art. 5 (1); the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, art. 3; and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, art. 4. Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 19. See also Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 4 (2003) on adolescent health and development in the context of the Convention, para. 8. See also Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 20 (1992) on the prohibition of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, paras. 2 and 5. See A/HRC/33/41, para. 34. Ibid., para. 5. See, for example, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 2. 5