Children’s Right to a Healthy Environment in Extractive Contexts: A Comparative Study of Kyrgyzstan and Puerto Guzmán in the Colombian Andean Amazon

Abstract

Children’s Right to a Healthy Environment in Extractive Contexts: A Comparative Study of Kyrgyzstan and Puerto Guzmán in the Colombian Andean Amazon examines how extractive activities affect children’s rights to health, education and clean water, comparing mining-affected communities in Kyrgyzstan with Puerto Guzmán in Colombia’s Andean Amazon.

The study identifies a significant gap between the formal recognition of children as rights-holders and their effective protection in extractive contexts. While the pathways of harm differ—from heavy-metal exposure and threats to water security in Kyrgyzstan to mercury contamination, ecosystem degradation, poverty and armed-conflict dynamics in Puerto Guzmán—the research highlights common shortcomings in child-specific safeguards, participation, monitoring and access to remedy.

The study calls for a more preventive and child-rights-based approach to extractive governance, recognising children not only as vulnerable future generations but as present-day rights-holders and participants in environmental decision-making. It was produced within the framework of the Global Campus Alumni Cross-Regional Projects 2025–2026, in partnership with Right Livelihood.