Children's right to a healthy environment

Sutova, Milica (2023) Children's right to a healthy environment. Faculty of Law, Goce Delcev University, Stip, North Macedonia. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Protection of the environment is the basis for the development of the quality of life - including the rights of the child. While multilateral environmental agreements recognize the need to protect and preserve the environment for future generations, few treat the current generation of living children as distinct from other age groups. The child's right to a healthy environment is guaranteed by the CRC (Convention on the Rights of the Child) and other international documents.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child has improved the child's procedural position in judicial and administrative procedures that refer to his interests. This Convention regulates the fundamental rights of the child for the first time. Article 12 of the UN Convention is one of the basic pillars of the Convention. It enables the child to be a real subject of the law, not just a passive object of protection that the parents or competent state authorities should provide.
The recognition and guarantee of this basic right are by the modern idea of the rights of the child, the implementation of which takes place through two parallel processes: through the expansion of the limits of the business and procedural legal capacity of the child and through the constitution of special, called participatory rights, which allow the child to influence his position to a greater extent.
According to the new concept, the rights of the child are not derived from parental rights and duties as their correlative, they are already independent, personal rights that belong to the child as their bearer. The child is no longer an object of the parental authorities, nor is he exclusively subject to the protection of his parents and other people, the child gets the right to protect only his rights by his age and mental maturity.
The child can appear in a different procedural role (the role of a party, participant, and witness) in a civil-judicial proceeding.
Children, especially those from the most vulnerable and marginalized backgrounds, are more exposed to and disproportionately affected by all types of environmental damage than any other group, despite being the least responsible for it. Almost every child on earth is exposed to at least one type of climatic and environmental hazard, shock, or stress, which affects their ability to fully realize the rights guaranteed to them. Children are particularly vulnerable to certain environmental risks, including air pollution; inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene; hazardous chemicals and waste, radiation; and climate change; as well as the threats that appear as e-waste.
Environmental education of preschool children is an important stage in a child's development. During this period, little people begin to take a real interest in the world around them. Teachers, speaking in the broadest sense of the word, are a key element of the educational process, starting from the preschool education of children, towards primary and secondary education. Therefore, research aimed at them is needed because only with a proper understanding of their attitudes, demands and needs, can we expect a successful implementation of the Program. The norms and principles of CRC, above all children's rights with environmental implications, must become guidelines for national and international environmental and sustainability policies. The CRC is the most frequently ratified human rights treaty and member states are expressly obliged to take all appropriate measures to implement children's rights (Article 4 CRC). For this to happen, children's rights must reach all policy areas that affect the children. This includes environmental and sustainability policy.

Item Type:	Other
Subjects:	Social Sciences > Law
Divisions:	Faculty of Law
Depositing User:	Milica Sutova
Date Deposited:	25 Dec 2023 10:32
Last Modified:	02 Feb 2024 13:04
URI:	https://eprints.ugd.edu.mk/id/eprint/33026

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