The UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, Mr Marcos Orellana, has called on the government of Ghana to immediately ban the use and trade of mercury in the country to reduce toxic substances and improve violation of human rights issues.
According to him, the increasing use of mercury in mining popularly known in Ghana as galamsey is highly toxic causing diseases such as cancer and will surely affect the quality of the country’s cocoa production.
The UN Special Rapporteur disclosed at a press briefing in Accra on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, after a 14-day visit to Ghana to assess the human rights situation in Ghana in relation to toxic and hazardous substances.
Giving his preliminary findings, the UN official said Ghana is known as the second largest leading producer of cocoa and the government should not compromise the product for gold production.
The expert who travelled to three regions namely the Eastern region (Atiwa range), the Ashanti region (Obuasi) and the Western region (Tarkwa) also stressed that the government’s National Action Plan on mercury is an important step but is not ambitious enough and does not include a phase-out date for mercury use.
He revealed that the continuous use of mercury in mining, the plain disregard for laws in relation to a toxic substance in mining areas and the conversion of cocoa lands for galamsey activities are a big risk to the country’s future.
Mr Orellana said the 14 visits to the country to analyze human rights issues also identified corruption in the police force of investigating issues of galamsey as another factor hampering human rights development in the country.
He said even though, Ghana has rectified all international protocols on human rights in the area of toxic and hazardous substances its implementation is weak.
“At Agbogbloshie, one of the world’s largest e-waste dumpsites, thousands of people living and working there are exposed to high levels of hazardous substances. “For a meagre income, children are leaving their schools to burn electronic cables for the extraction of copper,” Mr Orellana said.
“At the same time, there is the weak implementation of laws concerning chemicals and waste at the national level. This puts individuals at risk of serious human rights violations”, the Special Rapporteur said.
Mr Orellana also revealed that plastic waste also is not properly managed.
“Plastics are covering beaches and burning in informal dumpsites all over the country. The National Plastic Waste Management Policy is important but effective implementation is lacking, he said.
“For instance, Ghana should consider banning single-use plastics, reducing volumes of production and establishing extended producer responsibility schemes.”, the Expert stressed.
Whilst commending Ghana for its leadership at the international level in strengthening multilateral agreements in the chemicals and waste cluster, as well as leading the African Group in negotiations toward a legally binding agreement on plastic pollution, the UN Special Rapporteur however called for an urgent action to be taken to stop the human rights violations as far as toxic and hazardous substances are concerned.
The Special Rapporteur is expected to present a report with his full findings and recommendations to the Human Rights Council in September 2023.
