Plastic Pollution A Global Threat To Human Rights, Say UN Experts

GENEVA (21 November 2024) – UN experts said today the legally binding global instrument on plastic pollution, now in the final phase of negotiation, must secure accountability in all stages of the plastic cycle. Ahead of the last scheduled session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in Busan, South Korea, the experts issued this statement:

“The current direction of the negotiations to produce a new international treaty on plastic pollution risks shifting responsibility from plastic-producing States to developing States that lack the capacity or resources to confront the global plastic scourge. Plastic producers, and the States where they are based, are not doing their part in addressing the global adverse impacts on human rights.

The legally binding instrument under negotiation must include explicit references to human rights to properly frame effective and legitimate solutions. Language on the right to information, the right to development, and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment are indispensable. In addition, the treaty should also reflect key human rights principles, including transparency, prevention and accountability.

Every stage of the plastic cycle generates plastic pollution that threatens the effective enjoyment of human rights. The mandate given by the UN Environment Assembly to the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee was clear: the instrument under negotiation must address the full lifecycle of plastics.

Transparency for plastic pollution in all stages of the plastics cycle means the public must have access to accurate and accessible information on the chemicals of concern used in plastic polymers and products, the type and amounts of pollutants emitted or released in each of the stages of the plastic lifecycle, and the volumes of plastics produced. This information is critical for the protection of human rights from the harmful impacts of plastics, as well as for adequate monitoring and enforcement of states duties and business responsibilities, including in respect of the reductions of plastic production that need to be established by the new instrument.

Accountability means that plastic producers must make contributions to a global fund. This fund should operationalize the polluter-pays principle and support implementation of effective waste management measures and technologies suitable to protect human rights in the specific context of developing countries, especially in small island developing States and least developed countries burdened by plastic pollution. It should also cover the clean-up of the toxic legacy of plastics, including the island-sized plastic gyres in the marine environment.

Prevention of harm to human and environmental health requires that chemicals of concern must be adequately controlled and kept out of plastics. This will also enable the transition to a chemically safe circular economy.

Prevention also means that plastic product design must enable both the phase-out of non-essential plastic products as well as chemically safe recycling. This is particularly important for developing countries that lack economies of scale and rely on imports.

A human rights-based approach also demands access to remedies, especially for those people who suffer disproportionate impacts from plastic pollution. A just transition that leaves no one behind is also critical to address the situation of many individuals and groups who derive an income from work on plastics.

The international community must come together to end plastic pollution. This requires bold vision that confronts the negative externalities imposed by the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries and responds to the full evidence base on the causes and impacts on human rights of plastic pollution throughout its full lifecycle, including its impacts on the other planetary crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.

A legitimate and just transition to ending plastic pollution necessitates placing human rights at the core of the legally binding instrument under negotiation.”

The experts: Marcos A. Orellana, Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes; Elisa Morgera, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change; Astrid Puentes Riaño, Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment; Surya Deva, Special Rapporteur on the right to development; Fernanda Hopenhaym (Chairperson), Lyra Jakulevičienė (Vice-Chairperson), Pichamon Yeophantong, Damilola Olawuyi, Robert McCorquodale, Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises.

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