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Child Law pp 63–92Cite as

The Child’s Right to Non-discrimination

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Abstract

It should not be necessary to write several chapters to defend the simple, undeniable truth that a child is such-hence a human being—while developing from embryo, to fetus, to born child (De George and Tollefsen 2009). Yet this simple truth has radical consequences for the way we understand the world and its laws, especially for evaluating socially approved moral convictions. As we noted in the previous chapter, two major obstacles to both our safety and our moral beliefs loom large.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Clarice Gaylord was Bill Clinton’s first appointee to the EPA office of Environmental Justice, by Executive Order No. 12898 in 1992, to redress inequities in the way EPA addressed environmental harms in white communities, and communities of colour.

  2. 2.

    See also the Madison Declaration on Mercury Pollution, www.unbc.ca/assets/media/2007/03march/madison declaration on mercury pollution with non-technical summary.pdf.

  3. 3.

    See also n. 14 and n. 15, p. 138.

  4. 4.

    www.guardian.ca.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/apr/24/un-canada-mining-human-rights.

  5. 5.

    ibid.

  6. 6.

    See http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/08/nigeria-usa.

  7. 7.

    Who so describes the Methanex case, where Health Canada was forced to retract its findings, accept a carcinogenic additive in gasoline, and pay US$11 million to the US Corporation that manufactured the substance.

  8. 8.

    See Toxic Trespass and the Aamjinwaang First Nation; the Grassy Narrows and White Dog case discussed in Chapter 2; and any number of cases unsuccessfully tried under ATCA, such as Wiwa v. Royal Shell Petroleum et al., 226 F.3d 8B(2d Cir.2000; Doe v. Unocal Corp., 2002 WL. 3d 63976 (9 Cir.2003); Jota v. Texaco, Inc., 157 F 3d 153 (2d Cir 1998), and too many others to mention.

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  1. Department of Law, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada

    Laura Westra

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Westra, L. (2014). The Child’s Right to Non-discrimination. In: Child Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05071-3_3

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