New treaty’s entry into force set to curtail global mercury crisis, say NGOs
EMBARGOED- UNTIL 15/8/2017, 23:59 PM, Brussels time
Brussels / Yerevan 16 August 2017- Today’s entry into force of the Minamata Convention establishes the first new multilateral environmental agreement in over a decade. The Zero Mercury Working Group* has been calling for a legally binding treaty for over a decade and welcomes the new protocol.
“While there are alternatives to mercury, there are no alternatives to global cooperation,” said Michael Bender, coordinator of the Zero Mercury Working Group. “Mercury respects no boundaries and exposes people everywhere” Elena Manvelyan, AWHHE President. “Only a global pact can curtail this dangerous neurotoxin.”
In October 2013 the convention text was adopted and signed by 128 countries, but would not take legal effect until at least 50 countries had ratified it formally. This milestone was reached in May of this year, and the convention will enter into force on August 16.
“We are now on the right track line.” said Elena Lymberidi-Settimo, Project Manager, European Environmental Bureau and ZMWG co- coordinator. “Over time, the Convention is expected to provide the necessary technical and financial resources to reduce exposure risks worldwide. Governments must therefore move swiftly towards efficient implementation of the Treaty’s provisions”.
The aim of the Convention is “to protect the human health and the environment” from mercury releases.
The treaty holds critical obligations for Parties to ban new primary mercury mines while phasing out existing ones and also includes a ban on many common products and processes using mercury, measures to control releases, and a requirement for national plans to reduce mercury in artisanal and small-scale gold mining. In addition, it seeks to reduce trade, promote sound storage of mercury and its disposal, address contaminated sites and reduce exposure from this dangerous neurotoxin.
The First Conference of the Parties will take place from 24 to 29 September 2017 in Geneva, Switzerland. Over 1,000 delegates and around 50 ministers are expected to assemble in Geneva to celebrate and lay the groundwork for the treaty’s overall effectiveness.
The Minamata Convention joins 3 other UN conventions seeking to reduce impacts from chemicals and waste – the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions.
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For more information, see:
http://www.mercuryconvention.org/Negotiations/COP1/tabid/5544/language/en-US/Default.aspx
Contacts
Elena Manvelyan, President, Armenian Women for Health and Healthy Environment (AWHHE) NGO, T: +37410523604, office@awhhe.am
Elena Lymberidi-Settimo, Project Coordinator ‘Zero Mercury Campaign’, European Environmental Bureau, ZMWG International Coordinator
T: +32 2 2891301, elena.lymberidi@eeb.org
Michael Bender, ZMWG International Coordinator, T: +1 802 917 8222, mercurypolicy@aol.com
Notes to the editors:
Mercury is a global pollutant that travels long distances. Its most toxic form – methylmercury – accumulates in large predatory fish and is taken up in our bodies through eating fish, with the worst impacts on babies in utero and small children.
*The Zero Mercury Working Group (ZMWG) is an international coalition of over 95 public interest environmental and health non-governmental organizations from more than 50 countries from around the world formed in 2005 by the European Environmental Bureau and the Mercury Policy Project. ZMWG strives for zero supply, demand, and emissions of mercury from all anthropogenic sources, with the goal of reducing mercury in the global environment to a minimum. Our mission is to advocate and support the adoption and implementation of a legally binding instrument which contains mandatory obligations to eliminate where feasible, and otherwise minimize, the global supply and trade of mercury, the global demand for mercury, anthropogenic releases of mercury to the environment, and human and wildlife exposure to mercury.