MEDIA STATEMENT – also available here GENEVA (13 March 2019) – The United Nations must take immediate action to provide justice and remedies for displaced minority communities who were housed in UN camps constructed on toxic wasteland in Kosovo*, says a UN human rights expert. Around 600 members of the…
Letter to UN Secretary General regarding Roma in Kosovo
11 July 2018 — A letter addressed by the Special Rapporteur on Toxics to the U.N. Secretary General in connection with the situation faced by Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian (RAE) families displaced during the Kosovo conflict, whom the United Nations housed in camps constructed on lead-contaminated toxic wasteland between 1999 and…
The rights of workers and toxic chemical exposure
The Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Hazardous Substances and Wastes report to the UN Human Rights Council in in September 2018 will focus on the rights of workers and toxic chemical exposure. According to the ILO, nearly two million workers per year – or three workers per minute –…
Denmark and Greenland, 2017
Report to be presented to UN Human Rights Council in September 2018 Key issues: Conduct of business outside Denmark & extraterritorial obligations, including pesticide exports and exports of end-of-life ships (shipbreaking); child rights and toxic chemicals, in particular endocrine disrupting chemicals; hazardous waste disposal by United States military in Greenland;…
Guidelines to Good Practices
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes (A/HRC/36/41) Download report here: Good Practice Guidelines Over the past several decades, many States have made welcome progress in reducing the impacts of toxics. However, this progress…
Chemical disaster fear in Eastern Ukraine prompts UN expert to raise alarm
GENEVA (10 March 2017) – A United Nations human rights expert is warning against the threat of catastrophic chemical disaster due to the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine. “Large chemical and industrial facilities are in areas where fighting is ongoing”, said Baskut Tuncak, the Special Rapporteur on human rights and…
Republic of Korea, 2015
End of Visit Statement Introduction 23 October 2015 — In my capacity as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and hazardous substances and wastes, I undertook an official country visit to the Republic of Korea, at the invitation of the Government, from 12 to 23 October 2015. The…