Toxic Chemicals: Decisions of the GA and CSD

World Summit on Sustainable Development
Johannesburg, South Africa 26 August - 4 September 2002

Johannesburg Plan of Implementation

23. Renew the commitment, as advanced in Agenda 21, to sound management of chemicals throughout their life cycle and of hazardous wastes for sustainable development as well as for the protection of human health and the environment, inter alia, aiming to achieve, by 2020, that chemicals are used and produced in ways that lead to the minimization of significant adverse effects on human health and the environment, using transparent science-based risk assessment procedures and science -based risk management procedures, taking into account the precautionary approach, as set out in principle 15 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and support developing countries in strengthening their capacity for the sound management of chemicals and hazardous wastes by providing technical and financial assistance. This would include actions at all levels to:

(a) Promote the ratification and implementation of relevant international instruments on chemicals and hazardous waste, including the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent Procedures for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade10 so that it can enter into force by 2003 and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants 11 so that it can enter into force by 2004, and encourage and improve coordination as well as supporting developing countries in their implementation;

(b) Further develop a strategic approach to international chemicals management based on the Bahia Declaration and Priorities for Action beyond 2000 of the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety 12 by 2005, and urge that the United Nations Environment Programme, the Intergovernmental Forum, other international organizations dealing with chemical management and other relevant international organizations and actors closely cooperate in this regard, as appropriate;

(c) Encourage countries to implement the new globally harmonized system for the classification and labelling of chemicals as soon as possible with a view to having the system fully operational by 2008;

(d) Encourage partnerships to promote activities aimed at enhancing environmentally sound management of chemicals and hazardous wastes, implementing multilateral environmental agreements, raising awareness of issues relating to chemicals and hazardous waste and encouraging the collection and use of additional scientific data;

(e) Promote efforts to prevent international illegal trafficking of hazardous chemicals and hazardous wastes and to prevent damage resulting from the transboundary movement and disposal of hazardous wastes in a manner consistent with obligations under relevant international instruments, such as the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal; 

(f) Encourage development of coherent and integrated information on chemicals, such as through national pollutant release and transfer registers;

(g) Promote reduction of the risks posed by heavy metals that are harmful to human health and the environment, including through a review of relevant studies, such as the United Nations Environment Programme global assessment of mercury and its compounds.

68. Achieve sound management of chemicals, with particular focus on hazardous chemicals and wastes, inter alia, through initiatives to assist African countries in elaborating national chemical profiles and regional and national frameworks and strategies for chemical management and establishing chemical focal points.

United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, 5th Session
New York, 7-25 April 1997

Resolution Adopted By the General Assembly for the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21

Toxic chemicals

57. The sound management of chemicals is essential to sustainable development and is fundamental to human health and environmental protection. All those responsible for chemicals throughout their life cycle bear the responsibility for achieving this goal. Substantial progress on the sound management of chemicals has been made since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, in particular through the establishment of the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety and the Inter-Organizational Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals. In addition, domestic regulations have been complemented by the Code of Ethics on the International Trade in Chemicals and by voluntary industry initiatives, such as Responsible Care. Despite substantial progress, a number of chemicals continue to pose significant threats to local, regional and global ecosystems and to human health. Since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, there has been an increased understanding of the serious damage that certain toxic chemicals can cause to human health and the environment. Much remains to be done and the environmentally sound management of chemicals should continue to be an important issue well beyond 2000. Particular attention should also be given to cooperation in the development and transfer of technology of safe substitutes and in the development of capacity for the production of such substitutes. The decision concerning the sound management of chemicals adopted by the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme at its nineteenth session 29/ should be implemented in accordance with the agreed timetables for negotiations on the conventions relating to prior informed consent and persistent organic pollutants. It is noted that inorganic chemicals possess roles and behaviour that are distinct from organic chemicals.

Report of the Commission on Sustainable Development on the Third Session (11-28 April 1995)

8. Progress in the implementation of decisions on sectoral issues adopted by the second session of the Commission on Sustainable Development

97. The Commission recalls the decisions taken on the sectoral clusters of "Health, human settlements and freshwater" and "Toxic chemicals and hazardous wastes" at the second session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, requests detailed consideration regarding the follow-up activities thereon and urges further efforts to ensure the full implementation of these decisions.

101. In the area of environmentally sound management of toxic chemicals the Commission welcomes the progress in establishing the mechanism of the Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals among UNEP, the International Labour Organization (ILO), FAO, WHO, UNIDO and OECD; the first meeting of the Inter-sessional Group of the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety, held in Bruges, Belgium, 20-23 March 1995; and the progress in the implementation of the voluntary Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure as well as the preparation for the development of an internationally legally binding instrument for its application.

102. The Commission takes note of the initiatives of the Summit of the Americas (Miami, 9-11 December 1994) and the follow-up, United States of America and Mexico-hosted International Workshop on Phasing Lead Out of Gasoline (Washington, D.C., 14 and 15 March 1995), in particular the efforts by developing countries and the commitments made by countries in the western hemisphere at the Summit of the Americas to develop action plans to achieve a phase-out of the use of lead in gasoline.

103. The Commission calls upon all countries to consider and all interested countries to develop action plans with a view to phasing out or reducing the use of lead in gasoline, and invites them to inform the Commission on Sustainable Development of their decisions and progress as appropriate at the fourth session of the Commission in 1996. To this end, in the context of the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, donor countries and international financial institutions should assist developing countries in the financing and transfer of relevant technologies in accordance with chapters 33 and 34 of Agenda 21. Furthermore, developing countries are encouraged to disseminate their acquired knowledge and experience in the reduction of or phasing out of leaded gasoline, including the use of biomass ethanol as an environmentally sound substitute for lead in gasoline. The Commission further calls upon countries to guard against the replacement of lead in gasoline with the excessive use of aromatics that are also harmful to human health.

104. The Commission welcomes and supports the work of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) and its goal of encouraging strategies for sustainable management of fragile coral reef systems.

105. The Commission welcomes the action of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), held in September 1994, which initiated the preparation for a convention on the safe management of radioactive wastes.

REPORT OF THE COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ON ITS SECOND SESSION (New York, 16-27 May 1994)

1. Toxic chemicals

157. The Commission notes that efforts to control chemical risks to human health and the environment have not kept pace with the widespread and growing use of chemicals in all sectors worldwide.

158. The Commission recalls that Agenda 21 states that a significant strengthening of both national and international efforts is needed to achieve an environmentally sound management of chemicals. In that context, the Commission urges Governments, international organizations and relevant non-governmental actors to increase their efforts to ensure that chemicals are used and managed in a sustainable way.

159. The Commission calls upon United Nations bodies and other international organizations to improve international coordination to avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts and to strengthen the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) in order to share the burden of work, involving the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as well as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Commission of the European Union.

160. The Commission notes that the International Conference on Chemical Safety was convened by WHO, UNEP and ILO in Stockholm from 25 to 29 April 1994, at the invitation of the Government of Sweden, and was attended by 114 Governments and relevant international organizations. The Commission also welcomes the establishment of the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety, as well as the Priorities for Action adopted by the Conference, which are contained in the annex below.

161. The Commission endorses the Priorities for Action and welcomes in particular the targets and timetables agreed upon, and calls upon Governments, international organizations and relevant non-governmental organizations to implement the Priorities.

162. The Commission urges Governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations to participate actively in the Forum, encouraging close links between a strengthened IPCS and the Forum.

163. The Commission welcomes the invitation of Governments to host inter-sessional meetings of the Forum.

164. The Commission acknowledges the important role of the Forum in the follow-up and review of chapter 19 of Agenda 21 and invites the Forum to report to the Commission on its work, when appropriate, before the special session of the General Assembly in 1997.

165. The Commission welcomes the recent progress by the Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts on the Implementation of the Amended London Guidelines in the development of possible elements for a legally binding instrument for the mandatory application of the prior-informed-consent procedure (PIC) on a global level. It recommends that UNEP, together with FAO and in close consultation with other international organizations, continue to evaluate and address problems with the implementation of the voluntary PIC procedure and to develop effective legally binding instruments concerning the PIC procedure.

166.    The Commission appreciates the recently agreed Code of Ethics on the International Trade in Chemicals, stressing that it should be widely applied by industry in all countries without delay. It emphasizes the role of industry as a major player in furthering the objectives in chapter 19 of Agenda 21, especially as regards risk assessment, the provision of data and the adoption and implementation of risk-reduction measures.

167. The Commission welcomes the relevant provisions of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, which, among other things, calls for appropriate assistance to enable small island developing States to control risks to human health and the environment of their peoples.

168. The Commission recognizes the need for Governments to develop appropriate economic instruments to strengthen the sound management of chemicals throughout their life cycle. It invites Governments to report to the Commission, at its next session, on their experience in applying economic instruments in that regard.

169. The Commission recognizes the importance of taking action to address the health and environmental impacts of chemicals. It notes, for example, the severe health impacts of human exposure to lead, endorses the ongoing work on that issue in several international forums and encourages further efforts to reduce human exposure to lead.

170. The Commission recognizes the need for Governments and intergovernmental forums to identify persistent and bio-accumulative chemicals with a view to phasing out or banning such chemicals.

171. The Commission notes the need to assess both the relative cost- effectiveness of programmes for implementing chapter 19 of Agenda 21 and whether the commitments undertaken meet the needs of the public, bearing in mind the risk of frequent contact with chemicals in everyday life.

172. The Commission acknowledges that efficient coordination of the work on chemical safety on the part of concerned sectors at the national level, the active participation of industry and employees as part of the mobilization of the non-governmental sector, and the strengthening of the community right to knowledge through environmental reports, eco-audits, emission inventories and similar instruments are important factors for increased chemical safety.

173. The Commission stresses the need for strengthening national capabilities and capacities for the management of chemicals, particularly in developing countries, and encourages the commitment of Governments to concrete bilateral action in that area.

174. The Commission stresses the need for full implementation of both the agreements on technology transfer contained in chapter 34 of Agenda 21 and the relevant decisions of the Commission. In that context, the Commission urges the international community to find concrete ways and means to transfer to developing countries and economies in transition appropriate technologies as regards toxic chemicals and chemical safety.

175. The Commission urges Governments to mobilize financial resources to respond to the above priorities, as agreed in chapter 33 of Agenda 21 and the relevant decisions of the Commission.

176. The Commission invites the task manager to continue to monitor progress made by the United Nations and other international organizations in implementing chapter 19 of Agenda 21 and to inform the Commission periodically of such progress through IACSD.