During UN meeting, Governments Urged to Ratify Mercury Treaty

NEW YORK, Sept. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- During the opening day of the 69^th General Assembly of the United Nations, NGOs are calling on governments to sign on and ratify the mercury treaty.  The Minamata Convention on Mercury was recently adopted at the Conference of Plenipotentiaries in Kumamoto, Japan on 10 October 2013.

"The adoption of a global legal agreement on mercury is a major accomplishment," said Michael Bender, co-coordinator of the Zero Mercury Working Group.(1) "Yet 50 countries must ratify the treaty before it can enter into force. Countries now need to step up, sign on to and ratify the treaty in order to assure its rapid entry into force and early implementation."

During the afternoon of September 24th, a Special High-Level event on the Minamata Convention will be held at UN Headquarters in NY, organized by the UN Office of Legal Affairs to facilitate governments support for the new treaty. Thus far, 102 countries have signed on to the Convention, and one country, the United States, has ratified it.

The Convention will remain open for signature until 9 October 2014. Those governments who have signed on to the Convention by then can become Parties to the Convention by ratifying it.  Countries that have not signed on by 9 October 2014 can only become Parties by depositing an instrument of acceptance.

The Convention presents the world with a real opportunity to work towards the significant reduction of mercury globally, according to ZMWG. 

For more information:

http://www.mercuryconvention.org/

http://www.mercuryconvention.org/News/SpecialHighlevelEventforthesignatureandrat/tabid/3867/Default.aspx

http://www.zeromercury.org/

(1) The Zero Mercury Working Group (ZMWG) is an international coalition of over 95 public interest environmental and health non-governmental organizations from more than 50 countries from around the world formed in 2005 by the European Environmental Bureau and the Mercury Policy Project.  ZMWG strives for zero supply, demand, and emissions of mercury from all anthropogenic sources, with the goal of reducing mercury in the global environment to a minimum.  Our mission is to advocate and support the adoption and implementation of a legally binding instrument which contains mandatory obligations to eliminate where feasible, and otherwise minimize, the global supply and trade of mercury, the global demand for mercury, anthropogenic releases of mercury to the environment, and human and wildlife exposure to mercury.

Contact: Michael Bender, tel.: 802-223-9000; Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Zero Mercury Working Group