UAE National Day celebrations on Friday coincided with the announcement of 16-year-old Kehkashan Basu from the United Arab Emirates winning the International Children’s Peace Prize.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus presented Basu with the prestigious award 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.
Basu started educating neighbors on the importance of saving the environment since she was only 6 years old. At 12, she founded her own organization Green Hope, through which she runs waste-collection, beach-cleaning and awareness campaigns. Basu went on to become the youngest ever Global Coordinator for the Major Group for Children and Youth of the United Nations Environmental Program.
As part of her 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 organization with activities in more than ten countries, and over 1,000 young volunteers.
In presenting the award to Basu in Hague on Friday, Muhammad Yunus underlined the urgency and importance of her work, as more than 3 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 realization of the rights of the child. Kehkashan teaches us that we all have a responsibility to work toward 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 that Basu won because she proved children’s ability to start a movement with substantial reach and impact: ”Basu has managed to mobilize 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 realize 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.”

Source: Arab News