Culture & Education | Sunday 4 December, 2016 11:56 am |

Sixteen-years old Kehkashan Basu from the United Arab Emirates is the 2016 winner of the International Children’s Peace Prize. Today, she was presented with the prestigious award, by Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus, for her fight for climate justice and against environmental degradation. The International Children’s Peace Prize is an initiative of KidsRights, the foundation committed to defending children’s rights worldwide.

At just eight years old, Kehkashan started educating neighbours on the importance of saving the environment. She planted her first tree and brought together children to collect and recycle waste. At the age of twelve, she founded her own organisation Green Hope, through which she runs waste-collection, beach-cleaning and awareness campaigns. Kehkashan went on to become the youngest ever Global Coordinator for the Major Group for Children and Youth of the United Nations Environmental Programme. As part of this work, she has been invited for a series of campaigns and lectures advocating for the importance of taking care of the environment to thousands of school and university students. Green Hope has become an international organisation with activities in more than ten countries and over a thousand young volunteers.

Muhammad Yunus, today underlined the urgency and importance of Kehkashan’s work, as more than three million children under the age of five die every year from environment-related diseases and many more suffer deeply from environmental issues. Mr. 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 realisation of the rights of the child. Kehkashan teaches us that we all have a responsibility to work towards a sustainable future.” Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his efforts to promote economic and social development.

KidsRights’ founder Marc Dullaert explained Kehkashan won because she proved children’s ability to start a movement with substantial reach and impact: “Kehkashan has managed to mobilise thousands of children to protect the environment. Children are the most vulnerable group and, without exception hit the hardest during environmental crises. They are, for example, the most vulnerable to water and air pollution. Children’s rights and environmental development are inextricably linked. To realise both, environmental rights for children should be embedded in international policy. KidsRights therefore calls upon the UN to supplement the Convention on the Rights of the Child to specifically include these environmental rights.”

Upon receiving the Prize today, Kehkashan confirmed that her work will continue: “I will keep campaigning to encourage children and adults to create a more sustainable future. I call upon everyone to think of how they can 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 treas.”