Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T21:31:48.918Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

United States Supports New Multilateral Convention to Limit Mercury Discharges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 John Heilprin, More Than 140 Nations Adopt Treaty to Cut Mercury Emissions, Wash. Post, Jan. 20, 2013, at A5.

2 As of the date of this writing (late February 2013), the text of the new convention is not yet available on the UNEP website. A brief preliminary analysis of the convention’s major provisions by Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate students is available online at http://mercurypolicy.scripts.mit.edu/blog/?tag=minamata-convention.

3 [Editor’s note: Prior to the January 2013 negotiations, some leading international health authorities urged that the new convention not ban use of thimerosal, a mercury compound used in many developing countries to prevent contamination in multi-dose vaccine vials. However, some advocacy groups unsuccessfully urged a ban on the substance. Sabrina Tavernise, Vaccine Rule Is Said to Hurt Health Efforts, N.Y. Times, Dec. 17, 2012, at A4.]

4 UN News Centre Press Release, Governments at UN Forum Agree on Legally-Binding Treaty to Curb Mercury Pollution (Jan. 19, 2013), at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=43963&Cr=mercury&Cr1=#.

5 U.S. Dep’t of State Press Release, Remarks at the Opening of the Fifth Session of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to Prepare a Legally Binding Instrument on Mercury (Jan. 13, 2013), at http://www.state.gov/e/oes/rls/remarks/2013/203045.htm.

6 U.S. Dep’t of State Press Release, The United States Applauds the Adoption of the First Global Agreement to Reduce Mercury Pollution (Jan. 31, 2013), at http://www.state.gov/e/oes/rls/pr/2013/203651.htm.