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…
Statement to Basel, Rotterdam & Stockholm COPs
Opening intervention by UN Special Rapporteur Tuncak to BRS COPs
UN must urgently provide redress for minorities placed in toxic Kosovo camps
MEDIA STATEMENT – also available here GENEVA (13 March 2019) – The United Nations must take immediate action to provide justice and remedies for displaced minority communities who were housed in UN camps constructed on toxic wasteland in Kosovo*, says a UN human rights expert. Around 600 members of the…
Statement to the UN Human Rights Council (2018)
Download here as PDF Opening Remarks, 39th Session of the U.N. Human Rights Council Excellences, distinguished delegates, colleagues, friends, The exploitation of workers can take many forms. In my annual report to you, I describe a particularly vicious form of exploitation: the exposure of workers to toxic substances. Over two…
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;…
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…
Toxic air pollution: UN rights experts urge tighter rules to combat “invisible threat”
GENEVA (24 February 2017) – United Nations human rights experts are calling for strong, urgent action by States, including legislation and enforcement of corporate accountability, to try to ensure that people around the world can enjoy the human rights to life and health in environments free from contamination. “Air pollution…
U.K. Mission – End of Mission Statement
End-of-visit statement by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and hazardous substances and wastes, Baskut Tuncak on his visit to the United Kingdom, 17 – 31 January 2017 (click for OHCHR link) 31 January 2017 In my capacity as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and…
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…