Stockholm Convention

Mr. Geri-Geronimo Sañez of the DENR (second from right) is among those recognized by the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions for their use of the skills and knowledge acquired from technical assistance activities provided by the Conventions. Other winners were from Nigeria, Jamaica, Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire.
(Photo Source : http://www.emb.gov.ph/portal/haz/Home.aspx)

Stockholm Convention is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Adopted in 2001 and entered into force in 2004, the convention requires its parties to take measures to eliminate or reduce the release of POPs into the environment.

In 1995, the Governing Council of UNEP in its decision 18/32 requested to undertake an international assessment of an initial list of 12 POPs and for the Intergovernmental Forum of Chemical Safety (IFCS) to develop recommendations on international action for consideration by the UNEP Governing Council and World Health Assembly by 1997.  In response, the IFCS in 1996 concluded the sufficiency of information that an international action, through a legally binding instrument is needful, in order to minimize the risk posed by the 12 POPs. 

In 1997 UNEP convened an intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC) with a mandate to prepare an international legally binding instrument for implementing international action on POPs.  The INC held its first meeting in June 1998 in Montreal, Canada during which a Criteria Expert Group (CEG) was established and tasked to formulate criteria and procedure for identifying additional POPs as candidates for future international action. 

The INC held five meetings before negotiations for a legally binding instrument was completed in December 2000.  The Convention was adopted and opened for signature at a Conference of Plenipotentiaries in Stockholm, Sweden in May 2001.