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WHO Regional Workshop on Chemical Safety
24 - 26th June 2013
The International Workshop to Strengthen Capacities for Sound Chemicals Management in South-East Asia Region
International cooperation
International cooperation
Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) The Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) is a unique, over-arching mechanism to develop and promote strategies and partnerships among national governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, for the promotion of chemical risk assessment and the environmentally sound management of chemicals. >>>
Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) is a policy framework for international action on chemical hazards that supports achievement of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD, Johannesburg, 2002) goal to ensure that "by 2020 chemicals are produced and used in ways that minimize significant adverse impacts on human health and the environment". >>>
International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM) The International Conference on Chemicals Management is organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC), with the aim to protect humans and the environment against harmful chemicals. >>>
Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC) The IOMC, established in 1995, is supported by 9 Participating Organizations (POs), with the aim to strengthen cooperation and increase coordination in the field of chemical safety in relation to human health and the environment. The 9 POs are the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The Inter-Organization Coordinating Committee (IOCC) is the IOMC secretariat. >>>

Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs)

Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) are legally binding instruments between two or more nation states that deal with some aspect of the environment, including chemical safety and chemicals management. Resulting from discussions that first took place at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, the main objectives of these MEAs are (1) to respond to the gravity of environmental problems, and (2) to recognize the regional and global nature of these problems. Through the years, additional MEAs have been developed as awareness of the global dimension of environmental issues has increased. At present, there are more than 200 MEAs, several of which were entered into at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This "Earth Summit" produced 5 key documents on issues related to sustainable development: 2 "hard laws" - the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Framework Convention on Climate Change, and 3 "soft laws" - the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, and the Forest Principles, which were adopted by consensus.


Examples of the most directly relevant conventions to chemical safety and chemicals management include:


The Basel Convention The "Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal" was adopted on 22 March 1989 by the Conference of Plenipotentiaries in Basel, Switzerland. It is the most comprehensive global environmental agreement on hazardous and other wastes, and aims to protect human health and the environment. >>>
The Rotterdam Convention The "Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade" was adopted on 10 September 1998 by a Conference of Plenipotentiaries in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and was entered into force on 24 February 2004. >>>
The Stockholm Convention The "Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)" was adopted in 2001 and became international law in May 2004. The convention is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from POPs, which are highly toxic chemicals that remain intact in the environment for long periods, resisting bio-degradation, and thus becoming widely distributed geographically, accumulating in the fatty tissues of living organisms and causing toxicity in humans and wildlife. >>>

Chemical Safety Towards Sustainable Development
Rio Declaration on Environment and Development The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development describes each States' obligations for promoting the principle of sustainable development, and involves managing resources in a way that provides for the needs of those who use those resources, as well as providing for their protection, and to preserve mankind's future interests in them. >>>
Agenda 21 Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action that is currently being implemented globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, governments, and major groups in every area in which human beings impact on the environment. >>>
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