JOINT STATEMENT
16 April 2026
Maseru, Lesotho
Across Africa, mining and other extractive activities are generating significant environmental pollution that disproportionately affects children living in surrounding communities. From lead toxins in Kabwe, Zambia, to heavy metal and fluoride contamination from phosphate mining in Hahotoé and Kpémé, Togo, to mercury and arsenic pollution from gold mining in Ghana, toxic substances released into soil, air, and water expose children to serious health risks and undermine their fundamental rights to a clean environment, highest standards of health, access to clean water, access to safe environments for leisure and play, and access to education. The young bodies of children absorb toxins more rapidly, and exposure can lead to lifelong and irreversible harm to their physical health, cognitive development, and overall wellbeing.
In this year of “Assuring Sustainable Water Availability and Safe Sanitation Systems to Achieve the Goals of Agenda 2063” on the African continent, children are left out if their environments, water sources and underground water are polluted by toxic waste.
Under the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, States Parties have clear and binding obligations to protect children from environmental hazards. Article 5 guarantees every child’s right to survival and development; Article 14 protects the right to the highest attainable standard of health; and Article 4 requires that the best interests of the child be a primary consideration in all actions concerning them. Exposure to toxic pollution fundamentally undermines these rights.
The situation in Kabwe, Zambia is one of the most stark examples of the devastating impact of environmental pollution on children. For decades, lead and zinc mining and smelting operations released large quantities of lead into the surrounding environment, contaminating soil, air, and water. Although the mine largely ceased operations many years ago, the toxic legacy of these activities continues to endanger thousands of children. Studies have found alarmingly high levels of lead in the blood of many children in Kabwe. In the most affected townships, over 95% of children exhibited elevated blood lead levels (BLLs) exceeding 10 µg/dL, with approximately half of these children registering BLLs of 45 µg/dL or higher. Lead poisoning can cause irreversible brain damage, learning disabilities, developmental delays, behavioral disorders, and other severe health complications. For many children in affected communities, everyday activities such as playing outside, attending school, or simply breathing the airexpose them to dangerous levels of lead contamination.
The Kabwe crisis reflects a broader challenge across Africa. Communities living near extractive industries and other pollution sources often face severe environmental risks while accountability, remediation, and access to justice remain limited. Children, who bear the greatest burden of this harm, are frequently left without adequate protection or remedy. As mining activity grows across Africa, governments are not matching this with requisite enforcement of sound mining and environmental regulation and protection, an enforcement gap too costly for the continent’s future.
The very future of Africa is at stake if its children become endless victims of unregulated extraction of minerals and Africa’s underground wealth. The time to act is now. We call on African States, regional human rights mechanisms, corporate actors, and international partners to take urgent and coordinated action to:
- Prioritize the protection of children from environmental harm in national laws, policies, and regulatory frameworks in the extractive industries and across all business enterprise;
- Ensure effective environmental remediation in communities affected by toxic contamination;
- Provide comprehensive medical care, long-term monitoring, and support services for children exposed to environmental toxins;
- Strengthen corporate accountability and guarantee access to justice and effective remedies for affected children and their families; and
- Integrate children’s rights considerations into environmental governance, business regulation, and development planning.
Protecting children from environmental harm is both a legal obligation and a moral imperative. The very future of Africa depends on it. The continued exposure of children to toxic pollution represents a profound failure to safeguard their rights, their health, and their future, and we have the opportunity to reverse it now.
About the Organisations:
The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) is a pan-African non-profit organisation that promotes the effective use of the African Human Rights System to advance and protect human rights and development across the continent. Through legal advocacy, capacity building and information sharing, the organisation works to strengthen the efficacy of African regional and sub-regional human rights mechanisms and to end impunity for human rights violations in Africa.
Conservation Advocates Zambia (CAZ) is a non-governmental organization that leverages legal action, policy advocacy, and public engagement to address climate change, deforestation, and industrial pollution in Zambia.
Environment Africa Zambia is a non-governmental organization founded in 1989 to bridge the environmental sector’s gap to raise environmental awareness and promote sustainable development.
Keepers Zambia Foundation (KZF), established in 1996, is a national NGO that empowers vulnerable communities in Zambia through sustainable livelihoods, climate resilience, and social protection to promote inclusive and equitable development. Working across rural and peri-urban areas, KZF delivers integrated, community-driven programmes that address root causes of poverty and has reached over 300,000 households.
LifeLine/ChildLine Zambia (LLCZ) is a non-governmental organization established in 2003. LLCZ provides broad Psychosocial Support Services through its national two 24-hour toll free numbers 116 (Childline) and 933 (Lifeline).
Advocacy for Child Justice (ACJ) is an organisation that is dedicated to advocating for rights of children who come into conflict or contact with the law, all while promoting a justice system that protects, rehabilitates, restores and empowers children.”
