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This update to the Global Mercury Assessment 2013 provides the most recent information available for the worldwide emissions to air, releases to water, and transport of mercury in atmospheric and aquatic environments.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury entered into force in August 2017, committing its currently 92 parties to take action to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury. But how can we tell whether the convention is achieving its objective? Although the convention requires periodic effectiveness evaluation (1), scientific uncertainties challenge our ability to trace how mercury policies translate into reduced human and wildlife exposure and impacts.

A new study, supported by the Minamata Convention’s Interim Secretariat hosted by UN Environment, reveals that women of childbearing age living in four Pacific Island countries have elevated levels of mercury in their bodies.

This brochure summarizes the interim results of UNDP’s work in protecting human health and the environment from mercury in support of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, illustrates linkages with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and charts the way forward.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury was adopted on Thursday, 10 October 2013 at 11:11 am in Kumamoto, Japan, following decades of increased awareness regarding the toxicity of mercury and mercury-related compounds. The journey

Read this UNEP Press Release on the historic Minamata Convention on Mercury - a global, legally binding treaty which opened for signature - was agreed to by governments in January and formally adopted as international law on 10 October 2013.

This document contains the text of the Minamata Convention on Mercury as agreed, in the form of the draft Convention, by the intergovernmental negotiating committee to prepare a global legally binding instrument on mercury at its fifth session, held in Geneva from 13 to18 January 2013.