Mercury treaty will help protect right to health – Human Right Watch

In the area of artisanal and small-scale gold mining, the largest source of mercury pollution worldwide, the treaty obliges governments to draw up national action plans, which ban the most harmful forms of mercury use, promote mercury-free mining methods, protect children and women of childbearing age, and seek to improve the health of miners.

Children in particular are exposed to grave risks in artisanal mining, as they work with mercury or are present during the burning of the mercury-gold amalgam.

“Artisanal mining communities work under hazardous conditions,” she said and added: “We are heartened that the Minamata Convention contains specific steps to protect these communities, including children, from mercury poisoning.”

However, the Human Rights Watch has criticized the treaty for failing to address child labor, or to set an end-date for the phase-out of mercury in artisanal and small-scale mining.
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