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Participating Organizations of the International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN),
including (but not limited to) those gathered in Stockholm, Sweden to attend the
Diplomatic Conference at which governments will sign the Stockholm Convention
on Persistent Organic Pollutants:
Hereby declare, on this occasion, our renewed commitment to
work jointly toward the elimination of persistent organic
pollutants (POPs) and other persistent toxic substances from
the world's environment.
Furthermore, on this occasion:
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Recognizing the serious and long lasting injury to ecosystems and human
health that POPs and other persistent toxic substances can cause in communities
that immediately surround their source locations, and also in far distant regions;
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Cognizant of growing scientific evidence and public awareness around the
world concerning the harm that is caused by these toxic pollutants; and noting
special concerns about their accumulation in food and in human body tissues;
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Applauding the Stockholm Convention as the first negotiated, global, legally
binding instrument that will oblige governments to take actions aimed at
eliminating these pollutants from the world's environment;
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Calling attention to the precautionary approach which is affirmed in the
Convention's Preamble and Objective, is referenced in its indicated method for
determining best available techniques, and is operationalized in its procedures for
evaluating additional candidate POPs;
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Noting that, upon ratification and entry into force of the Convention, the
world's governments will be committed to proceed toward bans on the
production, generation and use of POPs, and to promote and require appropriate
substitution with cleaner products, materials, processes and/or practices;
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Noting further that under the terms of the Convention, governments will also
be committed to identifying obsolete stockpiles and wastes containing POPs, to
requiring their proper and complete destruction (chemical transformation), and to
promoting proper cleanup and remediation of soils and other environmental
reservoirs that are significantly contaminated by these substances;
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Calling Attention to the initial list of twelve POPs whose releases the
Stockholm Convention will aim to eliminate: Dioxins, Furans, DDT, PCBs,
Chlordane, Heptachlor, Aldrin, Dieldrin, Endrin, Mirex, Toxaphene and
Hexachlorobenzene;
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Understanding that this initial list of twelve POPs is only a starting point, and
that expedited expansion of the list is needed in order to incorporate into the
Convention other persistent, toxic substances of global concern that harm
ecosystems and human health;
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Reminding donor governments, intergovernmental organizations, and
international aid agencies of the commitments made to developing countries and
countries with transitional economies to provide them with new and additional
sources of financial and technical support in order to enable them to meet their
obligations under the Stockholm Convention, and to make these resources
available in an efficient and transparent manner;
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Celebrating the opportunity given to public interest nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) to participate in the global POPs Intergovernmental
Negotiating Committee process, and noting that this enabled IPEN Participating
Organizations from all corners of the world to make important contributions
toward securing international agreement on numerous provisions of the
Stockholm Convention;
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Recognizing that economic globalization encourages and promotes activities
in
many countries that result in toxic chemical pollution; and that organized efforts
to oppose and stop polluting activities are often resisted by transnational
corporate interests and others as a perceived threat to economic development
and growth;
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Recognizing further that successful activity to implement this Convention and
to eliminate POPs and other persistent toxic pollutants will require the
participation of NGOs as effective stakeholders in joint activities involving
governments, industry groups, international agencies, scientific centers, and
others; and
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Commending the Government of Sweden, as host of this Diplomatic
Conference, for its recent initiative to secure "bans on substances that
accumulate in the body" and for advocating international chemicals policies based
on the objective that: "the environment must be free from man-made substances
and metals that represent a threat to health or biological diversity;" commending
Sweden also for its international leadership in advocating chemicals policies
based on the precautionary principle, the substitution principle, producer
responsibility and the polluter pays principle; and commending Sweden finally for
its important contributions toward securing agreement on a strong global POPs
treaty.
IPEN Participating Organizations hereby declare and affirm
our common:
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Commitment to work for a world in which POPs and other persistent toxic
chemical substances no longer pollute our local and global environments, nor
contaminate our food, our bodies, and the bodies of our children and future
generations;
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Agreement that the mission of IPEN is to facilitate effective involvement by its
Participating Organizations in local, national, and international activities to
promote the elimination of POPs and other persistent toxic substances; and
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Demand that urgent action be taken to eliminate POPs and other persistent toxic substances, that this action move forward now, and that it not be delayed
or deferred until after the Stockholm Convention has been ratified and enters into
force.
To accomplish our shared vision, IPEN's Participating
Organizations affirm our intention to work to:
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Phase-out and ban the production and use of POPs and other persistent toxic substances; and substitute cleaner products, materials, processes and practices,
with priority, as appropriate, to non-chemical alternatives;
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Phase-out materials, products, and processes that generate and release
dioxins and other unwanted byproduct POPs, and promote cleaner products,
materials, processes and activities that avoid generation and release of toxic
byproducts;
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Identify, make secure, and properly destroy obsolete stockpiles and wastes containing POPs and other persistent toxic substances by means that ensure
complete destruction (i.e., chemical transformation), and that do not themselves
generate or release toxic pollutants or otherwise cause injury to the health and
the safety of workers and surrounding communities;
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Support the Polluter Pays Principle under which the producer, exporting
company, and/or exporting country is responsible for the cleanup and destruction
of obsolete POPs stockpiles, especially in developing countries;
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Halt combustion and other environmentally inappropriate methods of treating
wastes and contaminated soils and sediments;
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Cleanup and remediate contaminated sites and environmental reservoirs
containing POPs and other persistent toxic substances;
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Reduce and aim to eliminate the generation of wastes, including municipal
solid waste, medical waste, and hazardous waste; and encourage waste
prevention, resource recovery, re-use and recycling;
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Reduce and eliminate the use of toxic chemical pesticides, and substitute
lower impact methods of pest and vector control to achieve effective agricultural
and public health practices that are environmentally sound;
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Eliminate toxic chemical residues in food, animal feed, and drinking water;
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Secure opportunities for meaningful participation by public interest NGOs and
other civil society organizations in programs at the local, country, regional
and
global level associated with the implementation of the Stockholm Convention,
including enabling activities, demonstration projects, development of country
implementation plans, monitoring activities, performance evaluation, and others;
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Develop timely and effective Stockholm Convention National Implementation
Plans in all countries; and promote rapid execution of these plans to achieve the
elimination of POPs and their sources;
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Appropriately and expeditiously expand the Stockholm Convention's current
list of twelve global POPs to incorporate other POPs of global concern; support
the immediate establishment of a POPs Review Committee that can begin
screening candidate POPs even before the Convention enters into force; and
establish appropriate commitments and obligations leading toward the elimination
of all additional POPs that are listed subsequent to the initial twelve;
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Encourage donor countries and donor agencies to provide adequate technical
and financial assistance to enable developing countries and countries with
transitional economies to implement the Stockholm Convention, and undertake
related activities to eliminate POPs and other persistent toxic substances;
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Establish a new focal area within the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) to
support implementation of the Convention, and ensure that it is adequately
funded in GEF replenishments; and
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Secure the ratification of the Stockholm Convention by all countries in advance
of the Rio + 10 World Summit on Sustainable Development (to be held in
Johannesburg in 2002); and by the same deadline also secure ratification, by all
countries, of other related conventions: the Rotterdam Convention on Prior
Informed Consent; the Basel Convention, together with its Ban Amendment
forbidding export of wastes from OECD to non-OECD countries; and the 1996
Protocol to the London Convention on ocean dumping.
Agreed this 22nd day of May, 2001, in conjunction with the
Conference of Plenipotentiaries for the Stockholm Convention
on Persistent Organic Pollutants, by the undersigned IPEN
Participating Organizations.
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