DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE GOVERNING COUNCIL AT ITS NINETEENTH SESSION

13C. International action to protect human health and the environment through measures which will reduce and/or eliminate emissions and discharges of persistent organic pollutants, including the development of an international legally binding instrument

The Governing Council,

Recalling its decision 18/32 of 25 May 1995, on persistent organic pollutants, and chapters 17 and 19 of the Agenda 21, as well as the principles of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, especially principle 15 regarding the application of the precautionary approach in environmental protection,

Aware of the concerns of the international community as regards the risks posed by the initial list of twelve persistent organic pollutants (DDT, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, chlordane, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, mirex, toxaphene, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins and furans),

Noting with appreciation the assessment process carried out in the framework of the Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals, together with the International Programme on Chemical Safety and the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety, on the initial list of twelve persistent organic pollutants and the conclusions and recommendations made by the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety,

Recalling paragraph 17 of the Washington Declaration on the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities, 1/ whereby Governments committed themselves to:

"Acting to develop, in accordance with the provisions of the Global Programme of Action, a global, legally binding instrument for the reduction and/or elimination of emissions, discharges and, where appropriate, the elimination of the manufacture and use of the persistent organic pollutants identified in decision 18/32 of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme. The nature of the obligations undertaken must be developed recognizing the special circumstances of countries in need of assistance. Particular attention should be devoted to the potential need for the continued use of certain persistent organic pollutants to safeguard human health, sustain food production and to alleviate poverty in the absence of alternatives and the difficulty of acquiring substitutes and transferring of technology for the development and/or production of those substitutes,"

Noting that many of the persistent organic pollutants identified in Governing Council decision 18/32 are currently subject to the voluntary prior informed consent procedure as laid down in the Amended London Guidelines for the Exchange of Information on Chemicals in International Trade and the International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,

Recalling that, in its decision 18/12 of 26 May 1995, the Governing Council established an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for an International Legally Binding Instrument for the Application of the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, and invited it to take into account the parallel activities on persistent organic pollutants,

Considering that the activities of the United Nations Environment Programme in the field of chemicals should be carried out in a coordinated manner to ensure that the international instruments being developed in this field are fully coherent and complementary,

Having considered the report of the Executive Director on the recommendations by the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety for international action on persistent organic pollutants to protect human health and the environment, 2/.

1. Welcomes and endorses the conclusions and recommendations contained in the Final Report of the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety Ad Hoc Working Group on Persistent Organic Pollutants; 3/.
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2. Concludes that international action, including a global legally binding instrument, is required to reduce the risks to human health and the environment arising from the release of the twelve specified persistent organic pollutants;
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3. Concludes that action programmes must take into account that the twelve specified persistent organic pollutants include pesticides, industrial chemicals, and unintentionally produced by-products and contaminants, and that, in the framework of overarching objectives to be negotiated by an intergovernmental negotiating committee, different approaches are needed for each category of persistent organic pollutants;
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4. Decides that immediate international action should be initiated to protect human health and the environment through measures which will reduce and/or eliminate (as further elaborated in the annex to the present decision) the emissions and discharges of the twelve persistent organic pollutants specified in Governing Council decision 18/32 and, where appropriate, eliminate production and subsequently the remaining use of those persistent organic pollutants that are intentionally produced;
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5. Recognizes that, in order to protect human health and the environment, international action should include:
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   (a) Use of separate, differentiated approaches to take action on pesticides, industrial chemicals, and unintentionally produced by-products and contaminants;
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   (b) Use of transition periods, with phased implementation for various proposed actions;
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   (c) Careful and efficient management of existing stocks of the specified persistent organic pollutants and, where necessary and feasible, their elimination;
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   (d) Training in enforcement and monitoring of use to discourage the misuse of persistent organic pollutant pesticides;
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   (e) Remediation of contaminated sites and environmental reservoirs, where feasible and practicable, taking into account national and regional considerations in the light of the global significance of the problem;
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6. Recognizes that international action should incorporate such practical measures as:
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   (a) The expeditious development of a global, legally binding instrument. The instrument should be developed in such a manner as to recognize ongoing activities on persistent organic pollutants and other related issues and institutions, as well as differing regional and national conditions and taking into account the special concerns of developing countries and countries with economies in transition;
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   (b) Voluntary measures, which may be implemented as a complement to, or
   independently of, a legally binding instrument;
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   (c) Coordination among different regional and international initiatives on persistent organic pollutants to ensure harmonized environmental and health outcomes from mutually supportive and effective programmes that result in the development of policies with complementary, and non-conflicting, objectives and that avoid overlap and duplication with other international and regional conventions and programmes;
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   (d) Input of scientific, technical and economic expertise and consideration of the ability of existing institutions and organizations to provide this input;
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7. Decides that socio-economic factors should be addressed in developing and implementing international action, including:
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   (a) Possible impacts on food production;
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   (b) Possible impacts on human health (for example, for vector control agents);
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   (c) Need for capacity-building in countries and regions;
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   (d) Financing concerns and opportunities;
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   (e) Possible trade impacts;
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8. Requests the Executive Director to prepare for and convene, together with the World Health Organization and other relevant international organizations, an intergovernmental negotiating committee, with a mandate to prepare an international legally binding instrument for implementing international action initially beginning with the twelve specified persistent organic pollutants and to take into account the conclusions and recommendations of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Persistent Organic Pollutants of the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety. Participation in the intergovernmental negotiating committee should be open to Governments and relevant intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations consistent with applicable United Nations rules;
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9. Notes the need to develop science-based criteria and a procedure for identifying additional persistent organic pollutants as candidates for future international action and requests the intergovernmental negotiating committee to establish, at its first meeting, an expert group to carry out this work. The group should work expeditiously, proceeding concurrently with the intergovernmental negotiating committee process, to develop criteria for consideration by the intergovernmental negotiating committee in the negotiation of a legally binding instrument. The process should incorporate criteria pertaining to persistence, bioaccumulation, toxicity and exposure in different regions and should take into account the potential for regional and global transport including dispersion mechanisms for the atmosphere and the hydrosphere, migratory species and the need to reflect possible influences of marine transport and tropical climates;
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10. Recommends that during the development of a global legallybinding instrument, due consideration be given to the work currently under way within the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe to develop a regional protocol on persistent organic pollutants under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution;
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11. Requests that the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee commence its work by early 1998;
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12. Requests the Executive Director to convene a diplomatic conference for the purpose of adopting and signing an international legally binding instrument for international action to reduce/eliminate releases of persistent organic pollutants to be concluded preferably by the year 2000;
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13. Requests the Executive Director, in collaboration with other international and regional organizations, to initiate immediate action, subject to available resources, on the recommendations in the Final Report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Persistent Organic Pollutants:
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    (a) For the development and sharing of information on the twelve specified persistent organic pollutants, including:
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    (i) Comprehensive reporting and information exchange, within and between countries and intergovernmental organizations;
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    (ii) Improved access to national information on persistent organic pollutants, as well as improved access to information by all countries, especially developing nations;
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    (iii) Improved access for developing nations to existing and future information on persistent organic pollutants issues by maintaining the United Nations Environment Programme clearing-house for information on persistent organic pollutants, including the electronic database on the Internet;
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    (b) To establish practical measures to evaluate and monitor the success of any implemented strategies, where appropriate;
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    (c) To improve the availability of information and expertise on alternatives to persistent organic pollutants through information exchange and education programmes to enable Governments to make their own decisions on replacing persistent organic pollutants with alternatives;
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    (d) To develop guidance on the selection of replacements for persistent organic pollutant pesticides;
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    (e) To assist countries in the identification of where polychlorinated biphenyls are found and in developing inventories of polychlorinated biphenyls in use, stockpiles of polychlorinated biphenyls and waste containing polychlorinated biphenyls by providing guidance materials, promoting the exchange of information among countries, and providing training, in cooperation with the Secretariat of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal and the Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals;
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    (f) In cooperation with the Secretariat of the Basel Convention, to develop an inventory of available destruction capacity for polychlorinated biphenyls world-wide;
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    (g) To develop, in coordination with appropriate international organizations, in particular the Secretariat for the Basel Convention and members of the Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals, in close consultation with the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety and national Governments, a check list or simple guidelines on how to identify polychlorinated-biphenyl-containing materials that would be useful for countries who have not yet made such an identification, especially developing countries or countries with economies in transition;
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    (h) To assist countries in the identification of national sources of dioxin/furan releases by promoting access to the information on available sources of dioxins/furans;
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    (i) To undertake cooperative programmes, particularly of a regional nature, on aspects of dioxin/furan management between developed and developing countries and countries with economies in transition, in coordination with activities of the organizations members of the Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals;
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14. Urges Governments, in collaboration with international and regional organizations, to initiate action on the recommendations in the Final Report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Persistent Organic Pollutants of the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety;
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15. Concludes that the establishment of an intergovernmental negotiating committee and subsequent negotiation of a global legally binding instrument on persistent organic pollutants should be considered a priority action of the United Nations Environment Programme;
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16. Requests the Executive Director, in coordination with appropriate intergovernmental organizations and Governments, to ensure that adequate financing is provided to support the intergovernmental negotiating committee and to implement the action items identified in paragraph 13 of the present decision;
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17. Calls upon Governments and other actors that are in a position to do so to provide the United Nations Environment Programme with the necessary financial and technical resources to enable the full and effective functioning of the intergovernmental negotiating committee, in particular the full and effective participation of developing countries, especially least developed countries, and of countries with economies in transition which may be interested;
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18. Calls also upon Governments and other actors that are in a position to do so to make available the technical assistance, capacitybuilding, and funding to enable developing countries, especially least developed countries, and countries with economies in transition which may be interested, to take appropriate action on persistent organic pollutants.

Annex

For the listed POP pesticides and industrial chemicals that are or have been intentionally produced: other than for the small number of remaining recognized uses, these POPs pose unreasonable and otherwise unmanageable risks to human health and the environment such that:

• (a) For the listed POP pesticides, measures should be taken to rapidly phase out remaining production and subsequent remaining use as alternatives are made available for the small number of remaining recognized uses; and
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• (b) For the listed POP industrial chemicals there is a need to phase out, over time, polychlorinated biphenyls and hexachlorobenzene on a global scale and, in the transition to complete elimination of use, there is a need for managing remaining use, storage and disposal.
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For POPs that are generated as unwanted by-products, currently available measures that can achieve a realistic and meaningful level of release reduction and/or source elimination should be pursued expeditiously, and this should be done by actions that are feasible and practical and additional measures should be explored and implemented.

Realistic action should be taken to destroy obsolete stocks of the listed POPs and remediate environmental reservoirs. Manufacturers and exporting and importing countries should work together to solve the problem on a priority basis, taking into account the following considerations:

• (a) Destruction technologies are available that may be appropriate and practical in some cases;
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• (b) In many regions, particularly in the developing countries, society still lacks appropriate and adequate destruction facilities and the costs associated with providing them may be greater than what the region can afford without technical and other assistance;
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• (c) In many cases, full remediation of environmental reservoirs may not be technically or economically feasible or practical; and
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• (d) Better information on the amount of obsolete stocks is required.

8th meeting

7 February 1997

1/ UNEP(OCA)/LBA/IG.2/6, annex II.

2/ UNEP/GC.19/23.

3/ UNEP/GC.19/INF.8, annex.