Oral statement on Toxic Waste

10/09/2008
Press release

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
Human Rights Council, 9th session

Oral Statement

item 3 – interactive dialogue with SR on Toxic Waste

Geneva, 9 September 2008

As the Special Rapporteur on the adverse effects of the illicit movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of human rights notes in his report, « poverty encourages desperate measures and practices among developing countries including the indiscriminate acceptance of hazardous products and wastes which threatens human rights ». This is confirmed by two cases FIDH would like to bring to the attention of the Human Rights Council.

For a number of years, FIDH has tried to raise its concerns about the human rights impacts of ship dismantling on the beaches of South Asia. In spite of growing international attention to this issue, the situation of the workers on the yards has not changed. A recent fact-finding mission of FIDH to Bangladesh revealed the existence of child labour on the yards, a work among the most dangerous in the world.

In a country where half the population lives in deprivation, extreme poverty pushes men and young boys to the shipbreaking yards to find a job. Accidents on the yards are occurring almost daily. Each year, in Bangladesh alone, hundreds of workers are victims of accidents some of them lethal. Many workers are severely injured, and their health is affected as a result of exposure to hazardous substances contained in the ships and of the unsafe conditions in the yards. Working in the same hazardous conditions as adults, without proper protective equipment, children and teenagers are even more vulnerable to accidents and illnesses.

Urgent measures need to be taken to render shipbreaking activities in Bangladesh compatible with international labour, health and environmental standards.

The International Maritime Organisation is currently negotiating a new global mandatory convention on ship recycling . However, the draft IMO Convention is currently so weak that it places no substantial obligations or incentives for shipbreaking countries or ship owners to improve upon the status quo, it represents a clear setback in relation to the current international legal framework. The Human Rights Council should pay greater attention to these negotiations. FIDH calls on Bangladesh and China to issue an invitation to the Special Rapporteur to visit the shipbreaking yards.

Secondly, FIDH welcomes the fact that the Special Rapporteur on the adverse effects of the illicit movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of human rights was able to conduct a visit to Côte d’Ivoire to investigate the effects on the human rights of the residents of Abidjan of the dumping on 19 and 20 August 2006 of toxic waste around the district of Abidjan from the "Probo Koala" ship, chartered by the company Trafigura.

Two years after this disaster which caused the death of at least 16 persons and the intoxication of over a hundred thousand persons, the responsibilities for this crime have not been established, whereas the consequences of the dumping can still be felt by the population. Furthermore, not all the victims have been granted the compensations in line with the settlement concluded between the Ivorian government and Trafigura in February 2007, that FIDH and its member organisations in Cote d’Ivoire denounced as a transaction at the expense of the rights of victims to truth, justice and reparation.

FIDH, and its member organisations in Côte d’Ivoire have repeatedly called on the authorities to make sure that victims have access to justice, and that the persons responsible for these crimes be sanctioned. As the Special Rapporteur declared, a strong message should be sent that such crimes will not go unpunished and that Africa is not a cheap dumping ground for toxic waste.

Moreover, our organisations continue to call on the international community to reinforce its implication in this case, in particular by developing its technical assistance.

FIDH calls on the members of the Human Rights Council to support the work of the Special Rapporteur, and would welcome an enlargement of the mandate to enable the Special Rapporteur to also take into account licit movement of toxic waste, which also has consequences on the enjoyment of human rights.

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