UN human rights experts urge treaty to address ‘plastic tide’

GENEVA (22 February 2022) – UN human rights experts* today urged the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA), the world's highest-level decision-making body on the environment, to address the growing plastic tide and kick-start international negotiations on a new binding agreement.

"Plastics are a global threat to human rights, including not only the right to a healthy environment but also the rights to life, health, food, water and an adequate standard of living," said Marcos Orellana, the Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights.

"To keep our planet habitable, UNEA should fulfill its catalyzing role and kick-start negotiations toward a legally binding agreement on plastics," added David Boyd, the Special Rapporteur on human rights and environment, ahead of the biennial meeting of the UN's 193 Member States from 28 February to 2 March.

The independent experts, appointed by the Human Rights Council, expressed alarm at the severe toxification of the planet. "At a time when scientific evidence is pointing to humanity having exceeded several planetary boundaries, including the safe limit for chemicals and wastes, UNEA has the opportunity, and even the responsibility, to take bold action to reverse humanity's self-destructive course," they said.

In 2021, the Human Rights Council recognized that everyone has the right to live in a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, the experts said, and this includes the right to toxic-free environments where people can safely live, work, study and play.

"Some communities, however, suffer from environmental injustices where the exposure to pollution and toxic substances is so extreme that they are described as 'sacrifice zones'," they said. "Given humanity's trajectory on toxics, climate change, and biodiversity loss, the planet is at risk of becoming a human sacrifice zone."

Orellana and Boyd said the global plastics crisis was not just about waste. "Each stage of the plastics cycle has direct and adverse impacts on the enjoyment of human rights," they said.

"This includes extraction and transport of fossil fuels that are used to make virgin plastic; the release of hazardous substances during plastics production that affect fenceline communities; the exposure during use to the hazardous chemicals added to plastics; and the mountains of plastics and microplastic waste that is mismanaged. To be effective, the plastic treaty must address all stages of the plastics cycle."

A new instrument on plastics must incorporate human rights standards, the experts said. Access to information, such as on chemicals added to plastics and plastics producers, should be guaranteed. Public participation in the design and implementation of plastics policies, and in the elaboration of the new instrument, will lead to more legitimate and effective solutions, they said. Access to remedies for harm caused by plastics is essential.

Orellana and Boyd said a plastics treaty should incorporate key principles including precaution, prevention, polluter pays, intergenerational equity and non-discrimination. It must also ensure protection for people and groups in vulnerable situations. These include children, women, indigenous peoples, coastal communities, people living in extreme poverty and waste-pickers, who are disproportionately impacted by chemicals in plastic and plastic waste.

UNEA should also establish a global science-policy interface platform on chemicals, waste and pollution that is free of conflicts of interest, the experts said. Such a platform – as the IPCC does for climate change - could raise global awareness of the serious toxification of the planet emerging issues of concern and produce authoritative scientific assessments to prevent exposure to harmful chemicals, waste and pollution.

"Disinformation about scientific evidence on hazardous substances has become a powerful tool for manipulating public understanding and debate, generating confusion and doubt," the toxics and environment experts said. "The right to science requires that governments adopt and align measures to prevent exposure to hazardous substances on the basis of the best available scientific evidence.

"This is the time for UNEA to act with determination to confront the triple crisis of toxics, loss of nature and the climate emergency."

ENDS

Marcos A. Orellana, the Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, was appointed by the Human Rights Council as of July 2020. Dr Orellana is an expert in international law and the law on human rights and the environment. His practice as legal advisor has included work with United Nations agencies, governments and non-governmental organizations, including on wastes and chemicals issues at the Basel and Minamata conventions, the UN Environment Assembly and the Human Rights Council. He has intervened in cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes and the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body. His practice in the climate space includes representing the eight-nations Independent Association of Latin America and the Caribbean in the negotiations of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and serving as senior legal advisor to the Presidency of the 25th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. He has extensive experience working with civil society around the world on issues concerning global environmental justice. He was the inaugural director of the Environment and Human Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. Previously he directed the trade and the human rights programs at the Center for International Environmental Law, and he co-chaired the UN Environment Program's civil society forum. He teaches International Environmental Law at the George Washington University School of Law and International Law at the American University Washington College of Law. Previously he has lectured in prominent universities around the world, including Melbourne, Pretoria, Geneva, and Guadalajara. He was a fellow at the University of Cambridge, visiting scholar with the Environmental Law Institute in Washington DC, and instructor professor of international law at the Universidad de Talca, Chile.

David R. Boyd , the Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, was appointed for a three-year term commencing August 1, 2018. He is an associate professor of law, policy, and sustainability at the University of British Columbia. Mr. Boyd has a PhD in Resource Management and Environmental Studies from UBC, a law degree from the University of Toronto, and a business degree from the University of Alberta. His career has included serving as the executive director of Ecojustice, appearing before the Supreme Court of Canada, and working as a special advisor on sustainability for Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. He has advised many governments on environmental, constitutional, and human rights policy and co-chaired Vancouver's effort to become the world's greenest city by 2020. He is a member of the World Commission on Environmental Law, an expert advisor for the UN's Harmony with Nature Initiative, and a member of ELAW, the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide.

Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council's independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures' experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

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