ABSTRACT
This chapter starts with and is based on the foundational role played by the environment on these rights. The evidence amassed by the World Health Organization (WHO) is the starting point but, as we shall see, that evidence complements the findings of much of epidemiological, ecological and social literature on those issues. Hence all the evidence supports the expansion of human rights for which this work will argue. However, arguments based on science and moral principles are not enough to ensure that public policy will be consonant with our findings. We need to understand the full import of the harms perpetrated against children, now seen as the new ‘canaries’, by the present flawed and incomplete laws and regulations, both those that spell out their rights, and in general, the duty to protect children, and those which deal with environmental protection. These two forms of protection are inseparable, and their interface, we shall argue, forms the basis for ‘ecojustice’, that is justice that is both intragenerational and intergenerational at the same time (see Chapter 6).
