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The Women’s Caucus is a space for advancing the equality and empowerment of women within the implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury. It provides a self-organized framework for collective action guided by shared experiences and perspectives on preventing women’s exposure to mercury and driving positive change for women in mercury-related decision-making processes.
Membership is open to all interested individuals, representatives of communities and civil society organizations (CSOs) working in the field of women and mercury. Membership is free of cost and does not entitle financial support for projects, activities nor attendance to meetings of the Minamata Convention.
Fill the form and become a member of the Women’s Caucus
Background
The Minamata Convention on Mercury pays particular attention to the needs of vulnerable populations, especially women and children, in several parts of its text. The preamble notes awareness of "health concerns, especially in developing countries, resulting from exposure to mercury of vulnerable populations, especially women, children, and through them future generations". Furthermore, National Action Plans to address artisanal and small-scale gold mining are to include “[s]trategies to prevent the exposure of vulnerable populations, particularly children and women of childbearing age, especially pregnant women, to mercury used in artisanal and small-scale gold mining.” In addition, Articles 16 (Health aspects), Article 18 (Public information, awareness and education), Article 19 (Research, development and monitoring) and Article 22 (Effectiveness evaluation) of the Minamata Convention on Mercury all refer to the needs of groups and populations vulnerable to mercury exposure.
Should you need further information, please do not hesitate to contact Lara Ognibene, Legal Officer of the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, at lara.ognibene [at] un.org.