• Nigeria fails to ratify Minamata Convention

Notwithstanding the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval in April, Nigeria has failed to ratify the Minamata Convention, which comes into force today.

The Minamata Convention joins three other UN conventions, the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, seeking to reduce impacts from chemicals and waste.
It protects the human health and the environment from mercury releases.

The European Union and seven of its member states – Bulgaria, Denmark, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Romania, and Sweden provided the “tipping point’’ needed to trigger milestone reached in May of this year, prompting the convention to enter into force on August 16.

In October 2013 the convention text was adopted and signed by 128 countries, but would not take legal effect until at least 50 countries had ratified it formally. The treaty holds critical obligations for parties to ban new primary mercury mines while phasing out existing ones and also includes a ban on many common products and processes using mercury, measures to control releases, and a requirement for national plans to reduce mercury in artisanal and small-scale gold mining.