Children's 
Health, 
Children's 
Rights: 
Action 
for the 
21st 
Century

A Forum's Poster Session 

rain cancer, leukemia, nervous and immune system disorders among children, damage to the foetus, breastmilk contamination, cancers, ill health and sterility among adults. Thus went the litany of abuses to the health of children - and adults - from chemical pesticides and other contaminants in food as presented at the workshop on Food Safety and Security. It was an indictment of our current food production systems and those who monopolize them. 

But the right of children to protection and freedom from exploitation under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the inclusion of safe food and food security as "a fundamental right of everyone" within the final declaration of the recent World Food Summit offers hope as well as avenues for advocacy and change. 

The struggle to include the right of all children to safe and secure sources of food and nutrition bore fruit when language on breastfeeding was included in the declaration drafted at the Summit: "Governments, in partnership, with all actors in civil society, as appropriate (will) enact legislation and establish institutional structures that provide opportunities for youth and enhance the special contribution that women can make to ensuring family and child nutrition with due emphasis on the importance of breastfeeding for infants," and "Give special attention to promoting and protecting the interests and needs of the child, particularly the girl child, in food security programmes..." 

The workshop revealed tensions between breasfeeding advocates and environmentalists: the threat of breastmilk contamination is often used by the environmental lobby to sensationalize the issue, and with the result of deterring breastfeeding. Unfortunately, environmentalists might not realize the negative impact of this approach, so it is crucial for breastfeeding advocates to help clarify the issue. 

Breastmilk contamination seems to be symptomatic of the unsound ways we produce and process our foods, according to the workshop, and recognizing this is a step in the right direction to bridging the information gap.