It's a startling reality that more American children are victims-and perpetrators-of violence than those of any other developed country. Yet unlike the other nations, the United States has yet to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Compelling, readable, and interdisciplinary, A Child's Right to a Healthy Environment provides an abundance of skilled observation, important findings, and keen insights to place children's well-being in the vanguard of human rights concerns, both in the United States and globally.

Within this volume, authors examine the impediments to the crucial goals of justice, safety, dignity, well-being, and meaning in children's lives, factors as varied as socioeconomic stressors, alienated, disengaged parents, and corrosive moral lessons from the media. The complex role of religious institutions in promoting and, in many cases, curtailing children's rights is analyzed, as are international efforts by advocates and policymakers to address major threats to children's development, including:

. War and natural disasters.
. Environmental toxins (e.g., malaria and lead poisoning).
. The child obesity epidemic.
. Gun violence.
. Child slavery and trafficking.
. Toxic elements in contemporary culture.

A Child's Right to a Healthy Environment is a powerful call to action for researchers and professionals in developmental, clinical child, school, and educational psychology as well as psychiatry, pediatrics, social work, general and special education, sociology, and other fields tasked with improving children's lives.

Preface.- Part I - Overview.- To Such as These the Kingdom of Heaven Belongs: Religion and Faith as Foundation for Children's Rights.- Part II - Perspectives on Healthy Environments for Children.- Preventing Childhood Malaria: Strategies That Work Today and Directions for the Future.- The Challenge of Eliminating Childhood Lead Poisoning.- Part III - Why Is Protecting the Human Rights of Children so Difficult?.- Spare the Rod: Why Are More American Children Victims and Perpetrators of Violence Than Those of Any Other Developed Country?.- Protection of Children in Disaster and War.- When Rights and Needs Collide.- Part IV - Human Rights as a Tool for Social Change.- UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: An Instrument for Creating a Healthy Environment for the Child.- The Right to a Family Environment for Children of Prisoners.- Ethical Issues Arising from the Child Obesity Epidemic.- Anchoring and Empowering Children: A Child's Right to Participation Within a Healthy Environment.- Part V - Cultural and Social Impediments to a Healthy Environment for Children.- Child Slavery and the Global Economy: Historical Perspectives on a Contemporary Problem.- In Harm's Way in America: The Burden of Gun Violence.- Social Toxicity and the Right to a Healthy Environment.