Weakening EU pesticides legislation weakens children's rights
CRIN and 17 child rights and youth organisations are raising concerns about the EU’s ‘Food and Feed Safety Omnibus’. This proposed package of measures shatters key protection standards governing the approval of dangerous pesticides in the European Union. Adopting it would expose children to serious and preventable health risks, violating the rights (and futures) of our youngest citizens.
19 December 2025
Weakening EU pesticides legislation weakens children's rights
Why would the EU want to roll back on critical protections?
As organisations dedicated to upholding the rights of children and young people, we express our deep concern over the EU’s proposal to weaken key rules governing the approval of pesticides. The so-called “Omnibus” on food and feed safety and its related regulatory rollbacks pose significant and unacceptable risks to the health, development and fundamental rights of our youngest citizens.
Children and young people’s unique vulnerabilities to pesticides contamination
Children are uniquely vulnerable to exposure to environmental pollutants, including pesticides. Their bodies and brains are still developing, and they breathe more air, eat more food and drink more water relative to their body weight.
A wide range of independent scientific studies have linked pesticide exposure during pregnancy and childhood to:
● adverse birth outcomes;
● cognitive and developmental impairment, including lower IQ and learning difficulties;
● increased risk of childhood cancers such as leukaemia;
● hormone disruption affecting growth and puberty;
● respiratory and immune system disorders.
This list is unfortunately not exhaustive, and the scientific consensus is clear: there is no safe level of exposure to many hazardous pesticides.
Should today’s decisions allow for the continued use and production of harmful pesticides, the costs will be shifted onto younger generations. They will go on to suffer the long-term environmental and health consequences. While children are particularly affected given their specific vulnerabilities, young people are also impacted by pesticides. Because many young people work in agriculture and seasonal outdoor jobs, they can face high exposure through handling treated crops and working in recently sprayed areas. Their bodies are still undergoing hormonal, neurological, and reproductive development. As such, they are also very sensitive to hazards, including endocrine disrupting substances, including pesticides, which interfere with the body's hormone system, mimicking, blocking or altering hormones that control growth, metabolism, reproduction and critical brain development. This combination of physiological vulnerability and increased occupational or environmental contact means that pesticide exposure can influence respiratory health, stress and sleep patterns, and reproductive health.
Guaranteeing a strong and efficient regulatory framework for pesticides is not only a public health priority but also a matter of justice. Regulations must be designed to provide greater levels of protection for current and future generations, not fewer.
The food and feed safety Omnibus and the risk of lowering safety standards
Among other consequences, the proposals under this Omnibus package would in practice lead to:
● relaxing the rules for pesticides already identified as hazardous, allowing them to stay on the market regardless of their risks through grace periods and approvals granted via derogations;
● opening the door to granting unlimited approvals for certain pesticides, and restricting the use of the latest scientific evidence;
● reducing transparency and public access to scientific information.
The newly proposed system would significantly increase the risk of hazardous pesticides not being properly identified and therefore remaining on the market. If EU leaders move forward with the deregulation of pesticides, they will be responsible for a wide range of children's rights violations.
Deregulation jeopardises EU human rights commitments and its values
The EU is holding itself as a global leader in the protection of human rights, public health and the environment. However, as it stands, the proposed Omnibus contradicts with EU treaties, as well as severely jeopardises the ongoing EU Commission's work and ambitions on intergenerational fairness and its related strategy.
By weakening key pesticides rules, the proposal violates the EU’s binding obligations under:
● the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, binding on all EU member states, including Articles 3, 6, 24 and 27, which guarantee children’s right to life, health, development, safe environment and food.
● the TFEU Article 191, requiring Union policy on the environment to contribute to preserving, protecting and improving the quality of the environment, and protecting human health (among other goals).
● the TEU Article 3(3), identifying the promotion and protection of children's rights as a principal objective of the EU and its Member States, guiding all actions and policies concerning children, and ensuring their best interests are a primary consideration.
● the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, enshrining the right to life (Article 2), physical integrity (Article 3) and environmental protection (Article 37).
To prevent children’s exposure to harmful substances, the EU has recently taken some much welcomed steps in sectoral legislation, especially with the revision of the toy safety rules. By doing so, the EU acknowledged the compounded dangers and damages which harmful substances can cause to children. However, children are not only exposed via their toys, they are exposed to a wide range of hazardous chemicals on a daily basis. Pesticides are found in their food, air, water, playgrounds and schools.
The regulatory measures on pesticides must be built on and guided by the principles of precaution, prevention and accountability. Children and young people have the right to grow up in a safe environment and to reach their full potential. Rolling back key safeguards against pesticide exposure sacrifices their health and rights in favour of short-term profits. The EU cannot allow this. EU leaders must act responsibly, and respect the rights of current and future generations to a safe and healthy future.
Contact: Suzanne Astic, Policy and Advocacy Adviser on Chemicals and Children’s Rights (suzanne@crin.org), Child Rights International Network (CRIN).
Signatories:
April Peebler, Co-Founder, Heirs To Our Ocean
Connah Snape, Board Member, Youth and Environment Europe (YEE)
Daniel Bacher, Deputy Director, Dreikönigsaktion der Katholischen Jungschar (DKA Austria)
Lianne Minasian, Co-Director, Child Rights International Network (CRIN)
Opiyo Martin, Founder & Executive Director, Stress Clinic Uganda
Rishav Das, Founder/President, Youth Activism Nepal (YAN)
Mohamed Nazri Bin Prem Nasir, Founder, Bina Malaysia
Francis Masaline, Founder/CEO, Youth International Leadership Institute (YIL-Network)
Lucy Otieno, CEO/ Director, Tujiunge na tujijenge Youth Group
James Ssekitto, Founder/CEO, Uplus Empowerment And Transformation International
Sebaka Derrick, Coordinator, Habitat Defenders Africa (HDA)
Bahati Belengye, Directrice Exécutive, FAIR-PLAY R.D.C Asbl
Ivy Mwangi, Founder, ANKA Organisation
Mugisha Rugango Jean Felix, Founder & CEO, Green Rwanda Initiative (GRI)
Eric Balakrishnan, President, Young leaders in Energy and Sustainability (YES-Europe)
Adrian Charles, Youth Lead, Mukuru Salama Youth Hub
Kelvin Chifulumo, Founder and Chair, Educating Girls and Young Women for Development-EGYD
Wilfred Loïc Kamdem Essoh, Founder and Chair, Association Les 10000 Jeunes