Event Conference
Making Visible the Invisible Occupational Victims of Chemicals Recommended by the CRC for Listing onto Annex III of the Rotterdam Convention | 2025 BRS COPs Side Event
05 May 2025
18:15 – 19:45
Venue: CICG | Room 2 & Online | Webex
Organization: Australian Council of Trade Unions, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, International Pollutants Elimination Network, Pesticide Action Network UK, Solidar Suisse, Bureau for Chemical Substances
This side event to the 2025 Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions aims to make delegates and other participants more aware of the human and economic costs of not providing information on exposure to hazardous chemicals, particularly those recommended by the CRC for listing, and for the negative consequences of the failure of the Parties to list these chemicals to Annex III.
About this Event
In June 2022, the International Labour Conference (ILC) decided to amend the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998) to include “a safe and healthy working environment” as a fundamental principle and right at work. In line with this decision the ILC then also decided to designate the Occupational Safety and Health Convention (no. 155, 1981) and the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention (no. 187, 2006) as fundamental conventions. The panellists will present and discuss how this fundamental change in the Human Rights landscape has so far contributed to increasing the visibility of OHS victims of hazardous chemicals and what steps need to be taken by Parties to increase the effectiveness of this Convention to align its implementation with fundamental human rights.
Panellists discussed the role of the Rotterdam Convention, particularly the PIC mechanism, in helping to protect workers from being exposed to these hazardous chemicals. They will also present other ways to increase knowledge about and the awareness for the OHS hazards of these chemicals and discuss their sound management. Panellists will present two case studies. These wil highlight the harms caused by exposures to chemicals the CRC has recommended for listing onto Annex III of the Rotterdam Convention, but which have yet to be listed and how some producers are using the non-listing in litigation to falsely claim their products are safe and supported by a majority of Parties.
Panellists discussed options to reform the Rotterdam Convention. It is recalled that at the last COP in 2023 a proposal to amend the Convention through the adoption of a draft decision to amend Articles 7, 10, 11 and 22 of the Convention and to add a new Annex VIII received the support of 92 out of 132 Parties present and voting (70%). The necessary threshold of 75% was thus only narrowly missed. The proposed amendment would have facilitated significantly an increased utilisation of the provisions of the Convention, and it would have improved its overall effectiveness.
The objective of this side event was to make delegates and other participants more aware of the human and economic costs of not providing information on exposure to hazardous chemicals, particularly those recommended by the CRC for listing, and for the negative consequences of the failure of the Parties to list these chemicals to Annex III.
Highlights
Video
Live from CICG