^{ARM : ASM Voice at the International Mercury Treaty Discussions}

Mercury pollution is a problem that threatens the health of the exposed populations around the world, including the gold miners and their families. The widespread and complex nature of the trade and impacts of mercury means that no national government acting alone can protect its people and its environment.

Recognizing this, in February 2009, at the meeting in Nairobi of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), environment ministers from around the world agreed on the need to develop a global legally binding instrument on mercury. A total of 140 governments were unanimous in their decision to start intergovernmental negotiations with the aim of preparing this treaty.

The first meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to prepare a Global Legally Binding Instrument on Mercury took place in Stockholm, Sweden, in June 2010. The objective of these negotiations is to reach agreement on final treaty text in time to adopt a new global mercury treaty at a diplomatic conference to be held in 2013.

In December 2010, UNEP convened a global forum on artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Manila. At the forum, where ARM was invited, the miners present - who came from the Philippines, Peru, Mongolia and Tanzania - took the initiative to draft and read a declaration addressed to those governments participating in discussions on the treaty.

The main reason that brought the miners to draft this declaration was that the preliminary draft treaty, called the “Elements Paper” which proposed an immediate ban on mercury trade when the end-use would be ASM. At the same time, trade would be allowed to continue for the majority of industrial uses while strategies for phasing out the use of mercury were being developed and implemented.

Since mercury is important for the gold recovery process for millions of miners, this inequitable approach to a trade ban could unnecessarily jeopardize the whole sector and the communities who rely on it. For this reason ARM decided to be actively present at the INC meetings to lobby for the view of ASM miners to be taken into account.

In January 2011, ARM attended the INC2 in Chiba (Japan) and made an intervention in the plenary session (read here). This intervention highlighted the reality that prohibiting the use of mercury and its trade will unfairly increase the vulnerability of the men and women in ASM communities.  ARM proposed that, rather than relying on a short term prohibition to achieve the reduction of mercury in ASM, the treaty actively support the transition to technologies that could rapidly reduce up to 95% of its mercury releases.

Following ARM’s intervention, a dedicated working group was created to specifically discuss the ASM issues. At the end of the session, we believe that the negotiators heard the miners’ point of view and that it will be taken into account in the next sessions.

ARM will be present in the next round to actively engage in the discussions about effective instruments to control mercury use and prevent mercury pollution impacts without damaging the livelihood of more than 50 million of people around the world who are associated with ASM. ARM will continue to defend the position that the immediate mercury ban is an ineffective and impractical strategy, which will create more marginalization than actual benefits and that ASM should be considered a special sector in relation to the calculation of the transition period.

Next stop: November 2011 in Kenya or Burkina Fasso for the INC3 meeting.