Ecological Rights of the Children

Convention on the Rights of the Child, legally binding international instruments for the guarantee and protection of child right, adopted in 1989 with an objective to protect the rights of all children in the world. Convention established 4 major principles which govern the implementation of all the rights it advocates on:

 

Non-Discrimination

Best Interest of the child

Right to life, survival and development

Respect for the views of the child

From the above principles, it’s crystal clear that every child has the right to live in safe environment, to have healthy life and develop their intellectual level which ultimately is related with the future of the country.

Ecology is the science that deals with the relationships between groups of living things and their environments which incorporate the relationship between human being and natural components i.e. water, air, land, etc.

From broader perspective, an ecological child right was introduced way back in 1999 by the National Coalition for the Implementation of Children’s Rights in Germany with an aim to draw attention to the relationship between child rights and the environment. Definition is more or less indicating the function to assure the child right where each child can develop and thrive to their potential without any disruption from environmental factors. Growth in healthy environment means better physical and mental condition throughout their life.

Situation of ecological rights of the children in today’s perspective

Without thinking much, if we think of answering simple question with deep analysis, we can have conclusion, 

“Are our children living in healthy environment?”

With in-depth analysis, the answer would be “NO”. It’s mainly because with the increasing trend of urbanization, greedy human only focuses on the developmental aspect, monetary prospect and ignored the ecological rights of their children. Because of the same ignorance, at the moment, children are living with no access to clean and safe drinking water, inhaling the highly polluted air, digesting the chemically toxic vegetables, etc. The problem just doesn’t end here, as children these days are prevented from enjoying the scenic beauty of the valley, playing in the open field, learn from nature. With each passing year, resources are getting depleted. The problem is even made worse depending upon the geographical condition, socioeconomic status of the family and community, literacy level, awareness level, etc. 

Though we have been hearing this many times, nature is the second home to children where they learn the craft of living; it’s been violated here and there, everywhere due to human greed. In other words, human sacrificed their next gen’s developmental growth for the sake of fancy living where everything are set to be man-made, even the environment these days is artificially set. To sum it up, numerous children suffer under environmentally unacceptable living conditions and are constantly exposed to pollution harmful to health.

Till this date, there seems no stoppage to the exploitation of natural resources, degrading the environmental component and destroying the ecosystems ultimately creating the scene where healthy environment becomes the scare commodity. The ever increasing problem and demand of the situation to protect the future prospects makes it absolute necessary to prioritize the actions to protect the ecological rights of the children. All the actions leading to the protection should be based on the mandates given by CRC as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, with its holistic approach to development, offers numerous entry points for strengthening environmental children’s rights.2 Articles 24 and 29 contain explicit references to the environment, while many other child rights, above all social rights, have strong environmental dimensions or may be reinterpreted from an environmental perspective. It turns out that the claim to environmental child rights is already rooted in the Convention, since without the right to a healthy environment it is impossible to realize the rights to food, water, health etc. – now and in the future.