| Towards a Mercury Treaty |
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| Friday, 03 September 2010 17:15 |
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Mercury has been at the UNEP Governing Council (GC) agenda since its 21st session, in February 2001. The following milestones have been reached since then. December 2002 – The Global mercury assessment was finalized.February 2003 (Nairobi) - GC 22 – acknowledges there is a global problem with mercury February 2005 (Nairobi) - GC decision 23/9 - decided on initial action February 2007(Nairobi) - GC decision 24/3 –-current efforts not sufficient, further long-term action required: identified priority areas, set up process towards a global framework November 2007 (Bangkok) – First Open Ended Working Group (OEWG1): Reviewed and identified the options February 2008 (Monaco) – 10th Special Session of the Governing Council – A progress report from the OEWG 1 was acknowledged and adopted by the governments. October 2008 (Nairobi) - OEWG2: Adopted report of findings and recommendations for GC-25 – on a global policy framework and options of measures in each thematic area. February 2009 (Nairobi) – GC Decision 25/5 – Decision to develop a global treaty on mercury and to continue and enhance existing work on mercury storage, supply , artisanal small scale gold mining, products and processes, national inventories, awareness raising and information on the sound management of mercury. Decision 25/5 of the Governing Council launched the discussions towards the developement of a mercury treaty. An Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) was formed, to meet 5 times before the treaty text would be agreed by 2013. The Zero Mercury Working Group has been following developments and participated at all relevant meetings since 2004. The work, preparations and all documents ZMWG developed and contributed to the meetings can be found below: UNEP GC 23, 18-15 February 2005, Nairobi, Kenya UNEP GC 24, 5-9 February 2007, Nairobi, Kenya UNEP Hg OEWG 1, 12-16 November 2007, Bangkok, Thailand UNEP SS GC 10, 20-22 February 2008, Monaco UNEP Hg OEWG 2, 6-10 October 2008, Nairobi, Kenya UNEP GC 25, 16-20 February 2009, Nairobi, Kenya UNEP Hg OEWG 3, 19-23 October 2009, Bangkok, Thailand UNEP Hg INC 1, 7-11 June 2010, Stockholm, Sweden UNEP Hg INC 2, 24-28 January 2011, Chiba, Japan UNEP Hg INC 3, 31 October - 4 November 2011, Nairobi, Kenya UNEP Hg INC 4, 27 June - 2nd July, 2012, Punta de l'Este, Uruguay UNEP Hg INC 5, 13 - 18 January 2013, Geneva, Switzerland UNEP Hg Diplomatic Conference, 7-11 October 2013, Kumamoto-Minamata, Japan UNEP Hg INC 6, 3-7 November 2014, Bangkok, Thailand UNEP Hg INC 7, 10-15 March 2016, Dead Sea, Jordan UN_Environment Minamata Mercury COP1, 24-29 September 2017, Geneva, Switzerland |