Feature
A child’s right to breathe: the case for legal protections against air pollution As Global Action Plan prepares to take a white paper to the UN calling for clean air to be recognised as a right of the child, Chloe Coules investigates why we need international recognition of the impact of air pollution on children and what changing human rights law could achieve.
‘I
am a lucky mum,’ explains Jemima Hartshorn, founder of Mums for Lungs, ‘To date, my children do not have any visible symptoms from the high air pollution they are exposed to everyday just by living in London. ‘But I worry about them and lie awake at night, wondering whether their lungs will be stunted or if they are going to develop asthma, cancer or diabetes – which are all illnesses strongly linked to air pollution.’ Like Jemima, parents across the world are constantly confronted with the risks that air pollution poses for their children, and many of them are not so fortunate to have avoided its impact. Every day around 93% of the world’s children breathe in air that is so polluted it puts their health and development at serious risk, according to WHO. The unique vulnerability of children is leading
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campaigners to call for global recognition of the health crisis faced by current and future generations and the intrinsic human right to breathe safe air. Global Action Plan is fighting to get the right to clean air recognised as part of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child. Désirée Abrahams, senior business manager at Global Action Plan, explains: ‘The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was agreed in 1989, so it was a long time ago when the world was a very different place. ‘Even though Article 24 specifically discusses health, the policymakers who were drafting the Convention had not explicitly thought about air pollution, and so we need specific words in order for there to be responsibilities and duties placed on governments and the private sector to protect children from air pollution.’ Global Action Plan is visiting schools in Beijing,
