Civil Society Common Statement on the GFC

Recognizing that the UN Global Framework on Chemicals (GFC) provides an opportunity to advance the vital work to protect human and environmental health from toxic chemicals and waste, representatives from five international civil society networks – IPEN, Pesticide Action Network International (PAN), Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF), Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), and International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) came together to develop this Common Statement aiming to encourage other organizations globally to join us as signatories. 

Background

In September 2023, the Global Framework on Chemicals – For a planet free of harm from chemicals and waste was adopted by delegates from over 100 governments together with representatives of civil society and the private sector at the fifth International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5) in Bonn, Germany. 

The GFC is the successor of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), a framework for global chemical safety adopted in 2006 with the intent of resolving the health and environmental crisis associated with chemical production and use by 2020. While it is widely agreed that SAICM failed to achieve this goal, civil society efforts under the SAICM umbrella made significant progress. Hundreds of civil society groups from more than 100 countries committed to developing and implementing collective, collaborative activities under SAICM and followed through with vital projects to advance protections for human health and the environment.

The GFC represents a critical opportunity for the world to work together to address the toxic chemicals and waste crisis. Its multistakeholder and multisectoral collaborative approach will be essential in promoting solutions to these urgent challenges. We invite civil society groups to join us in this Common Statement and commit to taking action to meet the aims of the GFC and forge a toxics-free future.

Read more about the GFC Civil Society Collaborative.

Common Statement

All people have the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, including a safe and healthy working environment. Therefore, we come together as civil society to declare our commitment to implementing the Global Framework on Chemicals (GFC) and promoting the vision of a planet free of harm from chemicals and waste for a safe, healthy, and sustainable future.

Representing organizations from different sectors, countries, and circumstances, we embody the GFC's multisectoral nature and demonstrate that we are stronger together.

We echo the words of the Bonn declaration that “the sound management of chemicals and waste requires urgent action across all sectors of society and the economy” and call for multisectoral, collaborative actions to:

• Focus on prevention as the hallmark of all activities aimed at eliminating or reducing risks from chemicals and waste, noting the importance of regulatory action based on the precautionary principle to reverse the burden of proof and require chemical producers to demonstrate their products are not harmful throughout their lifecycles before they can be brought to market.
• Eliminate exposures to harmful chemicals and swiftly phase out the most hazardous ones to protect human health, particularly the health of women and children, with special attention to early childhood;
• Promote human rights and implementation of the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment for the benefit of present and future generations, founded on access to justice;
• Ensure inclusive and meaningful participation to enable multisectoral and multi-stakeholder collaborations through participatory decision-making processes, public awareness, transparency on chemicals throughout their life cycle, and environmental information - all fundamental to the protection of human health and the environment;
• Protect and ensure the rights of groups in vulnerable situations, including Indigenous Peoples, fenceline and frontline communities, and others who are disproportionately affected by chemicals and waste and support toxics-free alternatives, recognizing the vital role of traditional knowledge.
• Promote women’s leadership and the human rights of women in all their diversity, aiming for gender-just solutions in addressing chemicals and waste;
• Engage the healthcare sector in eliminating and reducing chemicals and waste, while maintaining the safe provision of care, based on the “do no harm” principle and adopt a “One Health” approach, noting the need to sustainably balance human health, biodiversity, and ecosystems and recognizing that human health, biodiversity, and the wider environment are linked and interdependent;
• Guarantee decent, safe, healthy, and sustainable work by respecting, promoting and realizing the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work;
• Ensure a just transition and respect for labor rights towards an environmentally sustainable economy with the goals of decent work for all which is the basis of social inclusion, protection of human rights, promotion of equality and the eradication of poverty;
• Enlist the participation of farmers, farm workers, rural communities, and all participants in the food supply chain to enhance safe food, feed, and fibre production by ending threats from toxic pesticides, and phasing-out production and use of highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) and all toxic farm chemicals while promoting toxics-free agroecological solutions;
• Ending illegal trade and traffic of chemicals and waste, as well as exports of hazardous chemicals from countries that already banned or restricted their use, and preventing harm from all traded hazardous chemicals;
• Support and operationalize the polluter pays principle and industry contributions to finance GFC implementation and ensuring dedicated funding that supports fair participation of civil society and all stakeholders;
• Implement policies and procedures to guard against undue industry influence and conflicts of interest in policymaking.

We call upon all stakeholders, including governments, public interest and civil society organizations, the private sector, intergovernmental organizations, and others, to commit to working together to realize these aims. Doing so will be critical for reversing the chemical crisis and moving toward a toxics-free future for all.