Conclusion

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Every day, millions of children and their families across the world, including in the EU, are harmed by exposure to hazardous substances. This violates a wide range of children’s rights set out in the UNCRC and other treaties by which EU member states are bound, while undermining the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child. The UN and EU child rights frameworks should be a key compass for decision-making in EU institutions, agencies, and member states.

If the EU does not efficiently phase out harmful chemicals while it has the opportunity to do so, it will effectively facilitate harm to children, complicit in the rights violations associated with underdeveloped regulation. As such, children’s rights protection should be embedded explicitly in EU chemicals legislation and policies.

The UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights Marcos Orellana and the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment David Boyd have warned:

“Given humanity’s trajectory on toxics, climate change, and biodiversity loss, the planet is at risk of becoming a human sacrifice zone. But the transformative potential of the right to a toxic free environment can help us keep our planet habitable.”²³⁰

This is the context in which the EU promised to be a frontrunner. It is now time to live up to that commitment and pave the way for ambitious chemicals legislation to extend protections to children in the EU while helping to inspire the same elsewhere.

The triple ecological crisis - climate change, biodiversity loss, and chemical pollution - must be addressed as one.²³¹ It is misguided to be “prioritising climate policies over chemical ones”, as they belong together.²³² The green transition, as well as progressive climate and biodiversity policies, all hinge in part on stronger chemicals legislation.²³³ Decarbonisation, detoxification, sustainable patterns of consumption and production - and the rights and welfare of children - all belong to the same challenge.

Footnotes

²³⁰ Orellana, M., UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, Boyd, D., UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, The Right to live in a non-toxic environment, March 2022.

²³¹ De Rooy-Underhill, H., CIEL, Breaking Silos on Chemicals and the Climate Crisis, February 2020.

²³² Secretariats of the Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm Conventions and the Minamata Convention on Mercury, Chemicals, wastes and climate change interlinkages and potential for coordinated action, May 2021.

²³³ As stressed by Prof. Scheringer, ARD Wissen: PFAS - Gift für die Ewigkeit | Wie abhängig sind wir?, October 2023.