Council Resolution: 06-09
28 June 2006
Advancing the Work of Resolution 95-05, Sound Management of Chemicals
THE COUNCIL:
REAFFIRMING the CEC’s priorities of information for decision making, capacity building, and trade and environment, as described in the CEC 2005-2010 Strategic Plan, and the strategic objective of strengthening the Parties’ abilities to assess and manage chemicals and sectors of concern;
REAFFIRMING the commitment to regional cooperation for the Sound Management of Chemicals, as stated in Council Resolution No. 95-05;
ACKNOWLEDGING the significant advances achieved through the development and implementation of Resolution 95-05, Sound Management of Chemicals, and noting, in particular, the successful completion of the North American Regional Action Plans (NARAPs) on polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chlordane, and DDT, and the associated reductions in risk to human health and the environment;
ANTICIPATING similar successes with the implementation of the North American Regional Action Plans on lindane, mercury, and dioxins, furans and hexachlorobenzene;
NOTING that the North American Sound Management of Chemicals initiative has benefited from and contributed to other regional, multilateral and global chemicals’ instruments;
NOTING the Parties’ support for the goal of the World Summit on Sustainable Development: “aiming to achieve, by 2020, that chemicals are used and produced in ways that lead to the minimization of significant adverse effects on human health and the environment”;
FURTHER NOTING that the Parties participated in the International Conference on Chemicals Management in February 2006, which adopted the Dubai Declaration of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management;
RECOGNIZING the need to further advance the sound management of chemicals in the North American region in order to meet existing and emerging global objectives; and
REAFFIRMING its commitment to active public involvement in the development of a North American sound management of chemicals initiative;
HEREBY DIRECTS the SMOC Working Group
TO move towards the realization of a strategy for the sound management of chemicals in North America that addresses issues of mutual concern, supports the CEC’s priorities and advances the Parties’ shared international objectives, including developing Strategies for Catalyzing Cooperation that will lay out the actions required to address issues of mutual concern;
ALSO DIRECTS the SMOC Working Group, as they further develop the strategy for the sound management of chemicals in North America, to do so in an open, inclusive, participatory and transparent manner, including linkages to other relevant activities, leveraging resources with other funding institutions, and actively involving industry, business, trade unions, environmental nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions and other members of civil society in chemicals management initiatives, including a transparent process for selection and prioritization of the initiatives of the Sound Management of Chemicals program;
ENCOURAGES the SMOC Working Group to identify further opportunities to promote synergies with other CEC activities; and
DIRECTS the SMOC Working Group to report to Council on its renewed direction, no later than the 2008 Council session.
APPROVED BY THE COUNCIL:
___________________________________
Rona Ambrose
Government of Canada
___________________________________
Stephen L. Johnson
Government of the United States of America
___________________________________
José Luis Luege Tamargo
Government of the United Mexican States
Advancing the Work of Resolution 95-05, Sound Management of Chemicals