First Conference of Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury |17 October 2017

‘Making mercury history’

Delegates from around the world including Seychelles met at the International Conference of Geneva (CICG) Switzerland late last month to take part in the first Conference of Parties (COP1) to the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Seychelles delegation was led by the principal secretary for environment Alain De Commarmond. 

Other members of the Seychelles delegation included Nanette Laure, director general for waste enforcement and permit division, and Michelle Azemia, the quality and standards officer of the department of environment.

The theme chosen for COP1 was ‘Make Mercury History’. COP1 also included a high level segment whereby ministers and senior government officials met to confirm the international commitment to the Convention.

During the high level segment Mr De Commarmond, who was representing the Minister for Environment, Energy and Climate Change Didier Dogley, took part in the ministerial round table, and together with other ministers and senior government officials of different countries they discussed lengthily on the occurrence of mercury in land, air and water.

The Minamata Convention on mercury is a global treaty which is aimed at protecting the human health from the adverse effects of mercury.

Some of major highlights of the Convention include the banning of mines, phasing out of products that contain mercury, control measures of emission to air and on releases on land and in water, and phasing out of dental amalgam containing mercury (just to name but a few).

The Convention also addresses the issue of storage of mercury and mercury disposal once it becomes waste.

Seychelles became a party to the Convention on May 27, 2014 and the ratification process was completed on January 13, 2015.  In 2016, Seychelles carried out its Mercury Initial Assessment (MIA), with three main outputs of the assessment being:

1) a national inventory for mercury,

2) to carry out policy/legal and institutional gap analysis assessment;

3) the development of national implementation plan on mercury.

Being among the first countries to have completed this assessment Seychelles now needs to implement the different recommendations as put forward in the report. 

During COP1 Seychelles had the opportunity to share to other countries its experience and outcomes of the MIA.

Contributed by the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change