CHR urged: Revisit, update advisory on hazardous substances

MANILA, Philippines — Environmental watchdog EcoWaste Coalition and its allied groups have urged the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to review its Human Rights Advisory issued eight years ago, which aims to protect the people against hazardous substances.

In a letter to the CHR on Friday, EcoWaste and over 35 organizations asked the commission through its chairman Richard Palpal-Latoc to revisit and update the Human Rights Advisory it issued on Nov. 14, 2014 expounding on “The People’s Right to Chemical Safety: A Fifteen-Point Human Rights Agenda.”

“While recognizing some progress in advancing the people’s right to chemical safety eight years since the advisory was promulgated, we believe much more needs to be done to protect the public, particularly the vulnerable populations, from the adverse impacts of hazardous substances,” EcoWaste national coordinator Aileen Lucero said.

“We ask the CHR to come up with an updated advisory on chemical safety that will reiterate and uphold the people’s right to be protected against hazardous substances in line with the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment,” Lucero added.

The timely issuance of the advisory, Lucero said, could put the spotlight on the need to “ensure a non-toxic environment for present and future generations, particularly as countries develop an instrument on plastic pollution addressing the toxic life cycle of plastic.”

Signed by then CHR chairperson Loretta Ann Rosales and three other commissioners, the eight-year-old advisory called for “health-based and human rights-based policies on chemicals in the Philippines that will guarantee our people’s right to chemical safety, taking into consideration the integrated life cycle approach, precautionary principle and the public’s right to know and meaningful participation.”