Tomorrow’s stewards: the case for a unified international framework on the environmental rights of children
File(s)Aczel.pdf (178.24 KB)
Published version
Author(s)
Makuch, Karen
Zaman, Sunya
Aczel, Miriam
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
This paper evaluates an approach for strengthening environmental rights for children to safeguard child health. We focus on children as beneficiaries of environmental rights on account of their vulnerability to environmental impacts on their physical and mental health. Current legal frameworks, unless explicitly identifying children as beneficiaries, arguably tend to be adult-centric. Our goal here is to develop a comprehensive rights-based framework to ensure that children are protected against adverse environmental impacts. We argue that approaches that safeguard children’s rights to life, health, and education should include environment-related issues, standards, and protections for those rights to be fully implemented. We propose employing sustainable development as a framework under which to develop an international treaty to promulgate the environmental rights of the child, thereby promoting health, environmental stewardship, and quality of life for children and future generations. We further argue that children’s environmental rights extend beyond basic “needs”—such as clean air, clean water, sanitation, and a healthful environment, among others—to include the right to benefit from access to nature of a certain quality and the wealth of educational, recreational, developmental, and health benefits that come with ensuring protection of the environment for children.
Date Issued
2019-06-12
Date Acceptance
2019-05-20
Citation
Health and Human Rights: an international journal, 2019, 21 (1), pp.203-214
ISSN
1079-0969
Publisher
Harvard School of Public Health
Start Page
203
End Page
214
Journal / Book Title
Health and Human Rights: an international journal
Volume
21
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2019 Makuch, Zaman, and Aczel. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
License URL
Sponsor
Imperial College London President's Scholarship
Identifier
https://www.hhrjournal.org/2019/06/tomorrows-stewards-the-case-for-a-unified-international-framework-on-the-environmental-rights-of-children/
Subjects
Environment
Human Rights
Environmental Health
Children
Environmental Rights
Environment and Public Health
International Law
Environmental Law
Environmental Policy
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2019-06-12