NEW YORK – Toxic pollution continues to undermine the enjoyment of fundamental human rights worldwide, a UN expert said today.
“Thirty years after the creation of this mandate, toxic pollution remains a profound human rights crisis,” said Bethanie Carney Almroth, the Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, presenting her predecessor’s report to the General Assembly.
The report reflects upon three decades of the mandate, assessing progress, persistent challenges and priorities for the future. It documents how toxic exposures continue to interfere with the enjoyment of a broad range of human rights, including the rights to life, health, food, water, safe and healthy working conditions, information, participation and effective remedy.
“The world is facing an accelerating toxic burden driven by the rapid growth in chemical production, unsustainable patterns of consumption and inadequate controls over hazardous substances throughout their life cycles,” the expert said.
“The impacts are felt globally but are borne disproportionately by those who have contributed least to the problem,” Carney Almroth said. “Children, workers, Indigenous Peoples, women and girls, people living in poverty and communities located in pollution hotspots continue to shoulder the heaviest burdens of toxic exposure.”
The expert highlighted that toxic harms do not disappear when a facility closes, or a project or a conflict ends. Instead, the legacy of contamination often remains embedded in ecosystems, livelihoods and human health for generations.
The Special Rapporteur called for a transformative shift from managing toxic pollution to preventing it. “States should strengthen legal protections, progressively eliminate the most hazardous substances, ensure the application of the precautionary principle, improve corporate accountability and guarantee effective remedies for victims of toxic exposure.” In this context, businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights throughout their operations and supply chains.
“The next chapter of this mandate must help advance a vision of a non-toxic future grounded in human dignity, environmental justice and intergenerational equity,” the expert stressed.
“Achieving a healthy environment free from toxic harm requires stronger international cooperation, science-based policymaking, meaningful participation by affected communities and a renewed commitment to accountability at every level.”
Carney Almroth called for a renewed global commitment to building a future free from toxic harm. “The mandate’s experience over the past thirty years demonstrates that toxic pollution is not merely an environmental issue. It is fundamentally a human rights issue.”
