Corporations must be held accountable for chemical poisoning: UN rights expert
With 47,000 people estimated to die each year from toxic chemicals and many millions more made ill, a United Nations
expert today urged States to hold trans-national corporations accountable for the human rights caused violations caused
by poisons in household goods and food.
“There is a proliferation of products and foods containing toxic chemicals,” Okechukwu Ibeanu, the Commission on Human
Rights’ Special Rapporteur on adverse effects of the illicit movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and
waste, said in a statement issued on the occasion of World Health Day, 7 April.
“In a globalized world, such products are traded internationally or produced locally by subsidiaries of trans-national
companies, thereby affecting the enjoyment of human rights of individuals and communities in all parts of the world,” he
added.
According to Mr. Ibeanu, low-level exposure to toxic chemicals occurs from different sources, from everyday household
and food products, to employment in the agricultural or the mining sector, to the disposal of electronic products and
vessels and accidents.
Each of these situations raises a variety of human rights concerns, and may require different strategies for prevention
and redress to victims, he said, but many of the individual cases brought to his attention deal with allegations of
irresponsible or illegal corporate behaviour.
“Such behaviour is too often met with impunity,” he said. “International human rights law compels States to take
effective steps to regulate corporate behaviour in relation to hazardous chemicals and holds private companies
accountable for any actions taken in breach of such regulations.”
The expert urged States “to take measures to assure that the victims of human rights violations arising from actions or
omissions by trans-national corporations should be allowed to seek redress in the home country jurisdiction, and to
ensure that trans-national corporations domiciled in their countries be held to account for violating human rights
standards.”
As a special rapporteur, Mr. Ibeanu is an independent, unpaid expert with a mandate from the UN Commission on Human
Rights, which adopted a resolution on the adverse effects of toxic products and waste on the enjoyment of human rights
in 1995.