In this report, the Special Rapporteur examines the impacts of toxics and pollution on children’s rights, and the obligations of States and responsibilities of businesses in preventing exposure by children to such substances.
Emissions from manufacturing and extractive industries, and the use of hazardous pesticides and industrial chemicals in consumer products and food, expose children to hundreds of chemicals that are known to be hazardous, and to countless others with unknown risks. These exposures can drastically affect the health and quality of life of children. This affects their rights to life, health and physical integrity.
Children are too often left without access to an effective remedy or justice for harms related to toxics and pollution. The deadly, lifelong impacts of this assault on children’s bodies frequently remain invisible until later in their lives, making it difficult to prove how and when the damage was done, and enabling impunity for perpetrators.