1st anniversary of the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas by the UN General Assembly on 17 December 2018
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...Read More »
Statement to Basel, Rotterdam & Stockholm COPs
Opening intervention by UN Special Rapporteur Tuncak to BRS COPs
Statement of UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and toxics to 2019 Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Convention 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 Roma,...Read More »
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 million workers...Read More »
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; impacts...Read More »
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...Read More »
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...Read More »
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 is...Read More »
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...Read More »
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 second...Read More »
10th anniversary of the ‘Probo Koala incident’ -- Friday 19 August 2016
Ten years on, the survivors of illegal toxic waste dumping in Côte d’Ivoire remain in the dark
GENEVA (17 August 2016) – Speaking ahead of the 10th anniversary of the illegal dumping of toxic waste in Côte d’Ivoire, a group of United Nations experts* urge the Ivorian Government, all responsible...Read More »
Urgent Global Action Necessary to Reduce Human Rights Impacts of Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs)
A Statement from the UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Food and the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Hazardous Substances and Waste
Delivered at Fourth Session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM4)
Geneva, Switzerland — 28 September-2 October 2015
Highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) continue to have...Read More »
Flint: Fundamentally about human rights
GENEVA (3 March 2016) – Today, a group of United Nations human rights experts called on the United States to increase its efforts to address environmental threats to human rights.
Recent outrage over lead-contaminated water in the town of Flint, Michigan, has drawn international scrutiny to the toxic threats faced by...Read More »
Germany, 2015
Issues addressed:
Final report available here
Comments by the State available here
End of visit statement (in German here)
Introduction
In my capacity as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and hazardous substances and wastes, I undertook an official country visit to the Germany, at the invitation of the Government,...Read More »
Republic of Korea, 2015
End of Visit Statement
Introduction
23 October 2015 — In my capacity as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and hazardous substances and wastes, I undertook an official country visit to the Republic of Korea, at the invitation of the Government, from 12 to 23 October 2015. The purpose of...Read More »
Statement at the 4th Session of the International Conference on Chemical Management
28 September 2015
Mr. President, excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen:
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today—a crucial meeting with the potential to set the pace and trajectory of efforts to achieve the sound management of chemicals globally.
Nine years ago, SAICM participants made an explicit commitment in the...Read More »
Statement at the 30th session of the Human Rights Council
16 September 2015
Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen:
Today I am presenting my first full report to the Human Rights Council on the right to information in the context of hazardous substances and wastes, and the report of my mission to Kazakhstan. I would at the outset like to express my...Read More »
Climate Change and Human Rights - Joint statement on the occasion of World Environment Day
(5 June 2015) This year, World Environment Day occurs during a meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP), which is meeting in Bonn, Germany, to negotiate a climate agreement to be adopted this December in Paris. The theme for World Environment Day...Read More »
End of Visit Statement - Kazakhstan 2015
26 March-8 April 2015
Introduction
In my capacity as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and hazardous substances and wastes, I undertook an official country visit to the Republic of Kazakhstan, at the invitation of the Government, from 26 March to 8 April 2015. The purpose of the mission was...Read More »
Peru / Indigenous peoples: "New oil project threatens further harm for human rights victims"
GENEVA / LIMA (15 December 2014) – The proposed re-licensing of heavily polluted land in the Department of Loreto region of Peru would perpetuate and exacerbate serious violations of human rights of indigenous peoples, including their right to health, food and water, two United Nations experts on indigenous peoples and...Read More »
UN independent experts urge practical measures to eradicate racial discrimination
International Decade for People of African Descent
GENEVA (10 December 2014) – A group of independent experts of the largest fact-finding and monitoring mechanism of the United Nations human rights system today called upon UN Member States and all stakeholders to increase their efforts to address the challenge of racism and...Read More »
Mercury: The world cannot wait any longer to control a major pollutant threatening human rights
GENEVA (31 October 2014) – The new United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and toxics, Baskut Tuncak, urged Governments around the world to expedite the ratification process of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from its adverse effects.
Mr. Tuncak’s appeal...Read More »
Statement to the Human Rights Council 27th Session
9 September 2014
Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen:
Today I am presenting my first report to the Human Rights Council. As I address you for the first time in my capacity as Special Rapporteur, I would at the outset like to express my gratitude to the Council for the confidence placed...Read More »