UNDROP 1st Anniversary statement The need to take steps to implement the UN Declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas 17 December 2019 The following joint statement has been made by a group of United Nations human rights experts* to mark the 1st anniversary…
Letter to Brazil regarding proposal to weaken protections from pesticides
Joint letter by the mandates of Special Rapporteurs on Toxics, Food, Environment, Health and Water & Sanitation. Concerns raised to the Government of Brazil concerning the Project of Law (PL),6.299/2002 which amends Law No. 7.802 of 11 July 1989, which would significantly weaken the criteria for approving the experimental 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…
Sierra Leone, 2017
Report to be presented to UN Human Rights Council in September 2018 Key issues: Industrial chemical, pesticide, and waste management in least developed countries; poverty and pollution; child rights and toxic exposures to hazardous substances; pollution from extractive industries and palm oil production; and business responsibilities. End-of-visit statement 25 August…
Pesticides are “global human rights concern”, say UN experts urging new treaty
GENEVA (7 March 2017) – Two United Nations experts are calling for a comprehensive new global treaty to regulate and phase out the use of dangerous pesticides in farming, and move towards sustainable agricultural practices. They say: “excessive use of pesticides are very dangerous to human health, to the environment…
Pesticides and the Right to Food
Pesticides and right to food In a new report by the Special Rapporteur on Food, Dr. Hilal Elver, written in collaboration with the Special Rapporteur on Toxics, a clearer account is provided of global pesticide use in agriculture and its impact on human rights; the negative consequences that pesticide practices have…
Statement to 33rd Session of UN Human Rights Council
Statement of the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes at the 33rd session of the UN Human Rights Council 15 September 2016 Excellencies, distinguished delegates, friends and colleagues: I am pleased to present my…
Urgent Global Action Necessary to Reduce Human Rights Impacts of Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs)
A Statement from the UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Food and the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Hazardous Substances and Waste Delivered at Fourth Session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM4) Geneva, Switzerland — 28 September-2 October 2015 Highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) continue to have detrimental…