The Minamata Convention on Mercury

The Minamata Convention is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury. More

Pursuant to the requests made by the conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions, the latest being set out in their decisions on cooperation between the joint BRS Secretariat and the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention (BC-14/22, RC-9/10 and SC-9/20), the Secretariat cooperates with the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention in areas of relevance to the BRS conventions. Cooperative activities between the two secretariats take place in areas of mutual interest such as: mercury wastes, effectiveness evaluation, financial resources, compliance, technical assistance and organizing/servicing of meetings.

The Basel Convention and the Minamata Convention have a close relationship for matters related to mercury wastes, their environmentally sound management and transportation across international boundaries, as set out in Article 11 of the Minamata Convention.

The COP of the Minamata Convention shall seek to cooperate closely with the relevant bodies of the Basel Convention in the review and update of the technical guidelines for the environmentally sound management of wastes consisting of elemental mercury and wastes containing or contaminated with mercury (Paragraph 4, Article 11). The thresholds referred to in the definition of mercury wastes are to be defined by the COP of the Minamata Convention, in collaboration with the relevant bodies of the Basel Convention in a harmonized manner (Paragraph 2, Article 11).

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COP-3 COP-2 COP-1 INC-7
Reports on cooperative activities undertaken by the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions with the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention    

BRS information sessions back to back with the Minamata regional meetings

BRS information sessions will be held back to back with the regional meetings organized in preparation of the second meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention.

BRS information sessions will be half-day meetings with the other half-day being workshops organized by the SAICM Secretariat. Please find below information on the dates, places and programmes of the BRS sessions:

Regional meetings in preparation for Minamata COP-2

  • Africa: 9-10 October 2018 in Lusaka, Zambia. BRS session scheduled on 11 October (programme).
  • Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia: 16-17 October 2018 in Chisinau, Moldova. BRS session scheduled on 18 October (programme).
  • Asia and the Pacific: 23-24 October 2018 in Bangkok, Thailand. BRS session scheduled on 25 October (programme).
  • Latin America and the Caribbean: 30-31 October 2018, Lima, Peru. BRS session scheduled on 29 October (programme).

The information sessions are organized thanks to the generous support of the Government of Switzerland.