Resolution urges implementation of 15 key principles on human rights and the protection of workers from exposure to toxic substances.

In closing its 42nd session, the Human Rights Council has just adopted a key resolution for chemicals & wastes management and human rights, calling upon all States, business enterprises and other stakeholders to implement the 15 "Principles on human rights and the protection of workers from exposure to toxic substances" as set out in the 2019 report developed under the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on “the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes” (the Special Rapporteur on ‘Human Rights and Toxics’), Mr. Baskut Tuncak, who had presented such report earlier this month to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/42/41, available in the 6 UN languages at:

https://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/42/41; see also:
https://www.srtoxics.org/2019-hrc-report-worker-principles/).

This resolution on the "protection of the rights of workers exposed to hazardous substances and wastes" recognises, among other things and in connection with the 2030 Agenda on sustainable development as well as with other fundamental UN human rights instruments or international labour standards, the human rights duty of States - and the corresponding responsibility of businesses - to prevent "unsafe" workers exposures to toxic substances, and calls for the:

• Strengthening of the coherence between human rights and occupational health and safety standards,
• Safeguarding of reproductive health in efforts to eliminate discrimination against women in employment, and
• Strengthening of the global regime for chemicals & wastes management to promote human rights.

More information:

At present, the text of the adopted resolution may be found on the webpage here.

Click here to read more information on the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Toxics.

The BRS Secretariat is a proud member of the UN’s Greening the Blue (GtB) initiative and has been climate neutral for 6 years in a row. As the newly-published this year’s GtB Annual Report shows, the BRS Secretariat measures and monitors its overall consumption of water, waste, and greenhouse gas emissions and puts in place mitigation measures to ensure that its footprint is ever lower.

Executive Secretary, Rolph Payet commented that “since 2011 the Secretariat has put in place practical measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For example, in 2017 we reduced our global air travel footprint by 15% on average compared to previous COP years (2015, 2013, 2011) and overall, since 2011, the Secretariat has reduced its carbon footprint by 21%, most notably due to promoting teleconferencing and back-to-back meetings”.

The Secretariat has been carbon-neutral since 2013. Reducing the Secretariat’s water consumption and generation of waste, including plastic waste, is also a priority. During the 2019 Triple COPs, special measures were taken to reduce the use of single-use plastics making the two-week long meetings not only paperless, but plastic-free.

For more on how the BRS Secretariat promotes sustainability across its operations, see: https://www.brsmeas.org/Secretariat/ManagementReports/Sustainability/tabid/2756/language/en-US/Default.aspx or contact Ana-Maria Witt at ana.witt@brsmeas.org.

For the new Greening the Blue Report, including the latest data on the BRS Secretariat and other UN organisations, see:
https://www.greeningtheblue.org/what-the-un-is-doing/secretariat-basel-rotterdam-stockholm-conventions-brs.

 

 

With deaths arising from pollution outstripping deaths caused by AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined, the need for sound management of chemicals and waste is pre-eminent from a health perspective, as well as from environmental and economic perspectives, writes BRS Executive Secretary Rolph Payet in the special report “Health: A Political Choice,” published by the Universal Health Coverage 2030 network in June 2019.

For more info on UHC2030 see: https://www.uhc2030.org/, and to read the article.