The 2016 KidsRights International Children’s Peace Prize Winner for her fight for climate justice.

Around the world every year three million children under the age of five die due to environment-related diseases including acute respiratory infections and diarrheal diseases related to environmental conditions like contaminated water and inadequate sanitation.

In presenting the award to Ms. Basu at The Hague, Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus said:

"It is a great achievement for such a young person to already have such reach and impact with her important message. A healthy environment is essential for the survival, wellbeing and development of children, and therefore it is a precondition for the realization of the rights of the child. Kehkashan teaches us that we all have a responsibility to work towards a sustainable future."

Pictured above: Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and Kehkashan Basu

Support Kehkashan and KidsRights today

At KidsRights, we are convinced that realizing children’s rights more effectively calls for the perspective, experience

and authority of children themselves.

Kehkashan Basu's Crusade for Climate JusticeWatch Kehkashan’s Life Story by clicking below, then select “Read More”.

On Dec. 2nd, sixteen-year-old Kehkashan Basu from the United Arab Emirates was awarded the prestigious International Children’s Peace Prize for her fight for climate justice and against environmental degradation.

When Kehkashan was eight, she started educating neighbors on the importance of saving the environment. She planted her first tree and brought together children to collect and recycle waste. She founded an organization called Green Hope at the age of twelve, through which she has initiated countless cleanup operations and awareness campaigns. Green Hope has become an international organization with activities in more than 10 countries and over a 1,000 young volunteers.

Kehkashan was chosen as winner by the KidsRights' international Expert Committee because she proves that one child can start a movement with enormous reach and impact. Learn more about Kehkashan’s life, and watch a short film about her life's story on our Razoo page here; then select “Read More”.

KidsRights’ founder Mr. Marc Dullaert said, "Kehkashan, like all the Prize winners, doesn’t have wealth or powerful networks, they do this work because they know it is right, and then get it done.”

The International Children’s Peace Prize is an initiative of KidsRights, an international nonprofit committed to defending children’s rights worldwide. Kehkashan is the 12th recipient of the Children’s Peace Prize. KidsRights works as a catalyst for children to be changemakers for children’s rights in their communities and across the globe. KidsRights provides the winners a global platform for their ongoing work, as well as supports their formal education with scholarship funding through to graduate school.

Kehkashan and the prior International Children’s Peace Prize winners work collectively through The KidsRights Youngsters. They join forces on behalf of all children's rights on critical issues such as preventing violence against children, stopping child slavery, ensuring girls have access to education, and, of course, inspiring all youth to make positive change in their communities.

“I will keep encouraging children and adults to create a more sustainable future. I call upon everyone to think of ways to contribute to the preservation of the environment. Take that extra step; walk that extra mile to get the future we want. Time is not on our side, we have to act now or we will have polar bears under palm trees.”

-Kehkashan Basu, 2016 International Children’s Peace Prize Winner

Children’s Rights & Environment are inextricably linked

In honor of the International Children’s Peace Prize 2016, KidsRights together with Leiden University’s Faculty of Law has written the report,

Cleaning up the Mess: Children’s Rights and Environmental Protection.

The report compiles findings from global research into the relation between environmental degradation and the rights of the child. Throughout the world, every year three million children under the age of five die due to environment-related diseases. Acute respiratory infections annually kill an estimated 1.6 million children under the age of five. Diarrheal diseases claim the lives of nearly 1.5 million children, of which 80 to 90 percent are related to environmental conditions.

You can read the report here.

KidsRights Vision and Mission

KidsRights was established in 2003 in the Netherlands to address a critical gap in the international children’s rights movement: the meaningful participation of children and

youth. KidsRights believes in a world where all children have access to their rights and are enabled to realize their great potential. We promote children’s rights and the well-being of very vulnerable children across the globe with children as changemakers in the process.

www.kidsrights.org

Congratulations toKehkashan Basu

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