The 5th Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee session to prepare a legally-binding instrument at world level on mercury (INC5) was held in Geneva, Switzerland on 13-19 January 2013. The agreement, known as the Minamata Convention on Mercury, has a call for the protection for human health and the environment from man-made emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds.
The Colombian negotiating team, led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, distinguished itself for its leadership, which was recognized by UNEP, with the “Mercury Club Bronze Award”, in recognition of its work in this negotiating process, and for having hosted the preparatory sessions of the Latin America and Caribbean group (GRULAC), held on 26-29 November 2012, in Bogotá, Colombia.
On 10 October 2013 the Colombian Government, through the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to the Government of Japan, Patricia Cárdenas-Santa Maria, along with 91 other countries, in the context of the Conference of Plenipotentiaries held in Japan, signed the Minamata Convention on mercury". The Conference, in which representatives of 160 governments took part, adopted resolutions for (amongst other things), the transition period through to the entry into force of the Convention. Likewise, it adopted a resolution to pay tribute to the Government of Japan, honouring the victims of the mercury pollution which occurred in Minamata Bay in the 1950s.
The Colombian Government celebrates this historic moment, for the adoption of this long-awaited instrument, and will initiate the internal process of ratification as soon as possible.
