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In support of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21st, the Zero Mercury Working Group and WE ACT for Environmental Justice are calling for the elimination of mercury-added skin lightening products (Hg/SLPs) as an important step towards protecting consumers and helping to end colorism.
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A mother in northern Nigeria is visibly upset as she clutches her two-year-old child, who has burns and discoloured skin on his face and legs.
The 32-year-old used skin-whitening products on all six of her children, under pressure from her family, with results that she now deeply regrets.
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As the world observes the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on 21 March, the United Nations Environment Programme, the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention and the Secretariat of the Global Mercury Partnership, are releasing a set of messages for public use and engagement that highlight the urgent need to stop the production and use of skin-lightening products containing mercury and other hazardous substances.
Skin-lightening products, including creams and soaps sold over the counter in New York City, can contain high amounts of mercury, a harmful metal.
Health Department has removed 1820 products from store shelves
Women make up 30% of the global artisanal and small-scale gold mining workforce, and they have critical roles to play in the movement to #MakeMercuryHistory & to safeguard communities from unsafe mining practices. Projects in the planetGOLD programme promote the participation and advancement of women who choose to work in this mining sector in order to provide for themselves and their families.
The end of 2024 was rich in significant events, including the fifteenth meeting of the Partnership Advisory Group (PAG-15), international meetings, as well as regional workshops under ongoing GEF funded projects on mercury-containing products.
Both the Secretariat of the Global Mercury Partnership and the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention are located at the International Environment House 1 in Geneva, Switzerland, where 4,010 mercury-containing lamps, including fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent bulbs, are being replaced with energy-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) alternatives.
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA—January 30, 2025 —Today, Plaintiffs Larry Lee and As You Sow reached a settlement with Amazon concluding a nearly decade-long lawsuit addressing the sale on Amazon.com of brightening and lightening skin creams containing mercury. This settlement prohibits Amazon from selling skin lightening creams that contain mercury in excess of FDA limits.
Following a two-day technical workshop, the event culminated in January 22 with the adoption of the Libreville commitment on the elimination of mercury-containing skin-lightening cosmetics in Africa. This agreement calls for regional collaboration to foster stronger regulations, enhanced enforcement measures and public awareness campaigns to combat these harmful products.
Mexico has been making significant efforts to stop the industrial use of mercury in line with its obligations under the Minamata Convention. CYDSA, a Mexican chemical conglomerate, replaced the chlorine and caustic soda plant in Monterrey with a state-of-art mercury-free plant from 2013 to 2016. To convert the last remaining mercury-cell plant in Coatzacoalcos, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) approved a 12 million dollar project.
The National Institute for Minamata Disease (NIMD), in collaboration with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is organizing laboratory proficiency testing (PT) for assessing the analytical capacity for mercury. The PT provides the individual proficiency levels of participating laboratories as well as collective mercury monitoring capacity in the region. UNEP is supporting this activity via the Japan-funded regional project in Asia and the Pacific.
In the context of Sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity taking place next week in Cali, Colombia from 21 October to 1 November 2024, we would like to highlight how global community is advancing the agenda to reduce and eliminate mercury and associated impacts on biodiversity. This is achieved by knowledge generation, curation, dissemination as well as on the ground transformative work.
In the small coastal town of Guapi, Colombia, Mary Luz Ante Orobio is meeting with a group she calls “the unstoppable women.”
They are gathered around a wooden chest filled with loose cash, a ledger and a calculator. Orobio flips through the ledger, eyes poring over tidy notes outlining a series of financial investments. She jots down some numbers before distributing cash among the group.
Albania, Burkina Faso, India, Montenegro and Uganda have joined forces to halt mercury pollution from the healthcare sector
Mercury harms human health and the environment
$134-million initiative will support a holistic approach to improve the management of mercury waste and the adoption of alternatives
Geneva, 14 May 2024 – The Governments of Albania, Burkina Faso, India, Montenegro and Uganda have united to combat chemical pollution today, launching a $134-million project to eliminate the use of mercury in medical devices.
Geneva—Today, as the United Nations highlights “the urgent need to address the harmful effects” of mercury added skin lightening products (SLPs) on the International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21, advocates are calling on governments to enforce bans and collaborate globally to end the toxic beauty trade.
As the world observes the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21, UNEP in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention highlights the urgent need to address the harmful effects of skin-lightening mercury-containing products (SLPs).
Toxic beauty ideals are among the many effects of racism, with people worldwide too often feeling pressure to change their skin tone, putting health at risk.
The Report on activities undertaken within the Global Mercury Partnership, 2022-2023 is now available.
COOGAVEPE technology center in Peixoto de Azevedo, Brazil, October 2023.
The Secretariat of the Minamata Convention participated in the Bern III Conference on cooperation among the biodiversity-related conventions for the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which took place from 23 to 25 January 2024 in Bern, Switzerland. The Conference was organized by the government of Switzerland and UNEP.
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Among the decisions made at COP-5, Parties defined new dates to phase out mercury-added products including cosmetics, strengthened ties with Indigenous Peoples, advanced the first effectiveness evaluation of the Convention, and reached an agreement on a threshold for mercury waste.
Read more on Minamata Convention website
As the sun rises across Mexico’s Sierra Gorda nature reserve, a golden light illuminates its nearly 400,000 hectares of mountains, gorges and valleys.
Set amid this vast wilderness is the Bucareli mercury mine.
Just after dawn, a metal door to the mine opens. The morning’s silence is broken by the dull sound of a generator and workers traipsing to their posts.
Among them is Jose Vigil, one of 800 people in the region who mine mercury, a highly toxic substance.
But for Vigil and the other miners, the clock is ticking.
The National Institute for Minamata Disease (NIMD), in collaboration with United Nations Environment Programme Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (UNEP ROAP), is organizing laboratory proficiency testing (PT) for assessing the analytical capacity for mercury. The PT provides the individual proficiency levels of participating laboratories as well as collective mercury monitoring capacity in the region.
21-26 May 2023, Kara – Togo
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is recognised in Africa, and particularly in West Africa, as one of the income-generating activities for local communities. However, despite the positive economic benefits, particularly in terms of improving living conditions, ASGM requires special attention, particularly in terms of organisation, regulations and sustainable practices that respect human health and the environment.
It is October 2013, and Rimiko Yoshinaga is standing behind a podium in Minamata, Japan, gazing at an auditorium packed with world leaders.
Silence descends upon the room as she begins recounting how a mysterious illness had killed her father decades earlier.
Yoshinaga would learn her father was one of thousands of Minamata-area residents poisoned in the 1950s and 1960s by industrial runoff laced with mercury, a neurotoxin.
21-26 mai 2023, Kara – Togo
L’extraction artisanale et à petite échelle de l’or est reconnue en Afrique, et particulièrement en Afrique de l’Ouest, comme l’une des activités génératrices de revenus pour les communautés autochtones. Cependant, malgré les retombées économiques positives notamment pour l’amélioration des conditions de vie des populations, la pratique de l’orpaillage nécessite une attention particulière notamment en termes d’organisation, réglementations, et pratiques durables respectueuses de la santé humaine et de l’environnement.
The overall goal of the UNEP Global Mercury Partnership is to protect human health and the environment from the releases of mercury.