The Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) believes that children have the right to development, safety, and control over their lives. The healthy development of children is critical to any society’s future well-being. Children are more vulnerable than adults to poor living conditions such as poverty, inadequate health care, nutrition, safe water, housing, and environmental pollution because they are still developing.

Children represent a distinct stakeholder group in society. While human rights apply to all age groups, and children have the same basic human rights as adults, there are some rights that are unique to children due to their unique needs and vulnerabilities.

These rights are enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which outlines every child’s right to survival, full development, protection from harmful influences, abuse, and exploitation, and full participation in family, cultural, and social life. The Convention develops children’s human rights, acknowledging the interdependence of their civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. It also acknowledges that children may require special accommodations or protection in order to fully exercise their rights.

Children are more vulnerable to the effects of large-scale mining than adults, especially between the ages of birth and five, when they are undergoing formative physical development. Chemical waste, for example, may be more dangerous to a child than to an adult and may have more serious consequences. Pollution and other environmental factors that can cause serious health problems are especially dangerous to children and infants.

On this page, we showcase CEJ and its corporating partners efforts in protecting children’s rights, health and wellbeing. Interventions include; trainings, mentorship, advocacy, livelihood support, skills training, policy influence, education, engagement and participation, and policy dialogues on child rights.