About the Convention

In 2001, the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) proposed that the Executive Director of UNEP conduct a global assessment of mercury and its compounds. This initiative laid the groundwork for what would become the Minamata Convention on Mercury.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury is a global treaty designed to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury. Named after the Japanese city of Minamata, which suffered devastating mercury poisoning in the 1950s and 1960s, the convention addresses the entire lifecycle of mercury.

Key provisions of the Convention include:

• Prohibition of new mercury mines and phasing out of existing ones
• Control and reduction of mercury emissions to air
• Regulation of artisanal and small-scale gold mining
• Phase-out of mercury use in certain products (thermometers, batteries, switches)
• Environmentally sound interim storage and disposal of mercury waste
• Addressing mercury-contaminated sites

The Convention entered into force on August 16, 2017, and has been ratified by over 130 countries, making it one of the most significant international environmental agreements of the 21st century.