This document provides an overview of several key international environmental conventions, policies, and protocols. It summarizes the objectives and key articles of conventions related to biodiversity, climate change, hazardous waste, and more. Major agreements discussed include the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. The document also provides details on the origins and objectives of the UN conferences that led to the establishment of these global environmental treaties.

1. An Overview of International Environmental Convention,
Policies and Protocols
Nabin Lamichhane
Lecturer
MPH Program
PUCMAS

2. Introduction
• Late 18th :After industrial revolution in the
century, the necessity of environmental law is
realized.
• As a result of the Stockholm Declaration of the
United Nations Conference on the Human
Environment in 1972, the international
environmental law changed greatly that led to
new thinking on how to reduce damages and
better preserve the environment through law.

3. Conventions/Treaties related to Environmental Health
CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
– (Ratified by Nepal on 23rd November, 1993)
– (Rio de Janeiro, 5 June 1992)
– Entry into force: 29 December 1993
Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
– (Acceded by Nepal on 18th June, 1975)
– Signed at Washington, D.C., on 3 March 1973,
Amended at Bonn, on 22 June 1979
Convention on Wetlands of International
Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat,
1971
– (Acceded by Nepal on 17th December, 1987)

4. Conventions/Treaties related to Environmental Health
• Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change, 1997
– (Acceded by Nepal on 16th October, 2005)
– Date & Place of Adoption: 11th December 1997, Kyoto Entry into
Force: 16th February 2005 (Art. 25)
• Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (as
agreed in 1987)
– (Acceded by Nepal on 6th July, 1994)
– Date & Place of Adoption: 16th September 1987, Montreal, Canada,
– Date of Entry into Force: 1st January 1989
• Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use of Asphyxiating, Poisonous
or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare
– Geneva, 17 June 1925
– (Acceded by Nepal on 9th May, 1969)

5. Conventions related to Environmental Health
STOCKHOLM CONVENTION ON PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS
– (Ratified by Nepal on 6th March, 2007)
– Date & Place of Adoption: 22nd May 2001, Stockholm Date of Entry
into Force: 17th May 2004
UNITED NATIONS FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE
(1992)
– (Ratified by Nepal on 2nd June, 1994)
– Opened for signature on 9th May, 1992, Entered into force on 21st
March 1994
Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer (1985)
– (Acceded by Nepal on 6th July, 1994)
– Opened for Signature Vienna, 22nd March 1985, Entered into Force:
22nd September 1988
The Minamata Convention on Mercury
– Start date: October 10, 2013, Signatories: 128 Effective: 16 August
2017

6. Conventions/Treaties related to Environmental Health
• BASEL CONVENTION ON THE CONTROL OF
TRANSBOUNDARY MOVEMENTS OF HAZARDOUS WASTES
AND THEIR DISPOSAL
– SIGNED 22 MARCH 1989
• THE RIO DECLARATION ON ENVIRONMENT AND
DEVELOPMENT (1992), RIO DE JENERIO
• THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION TO COMBAT
DESERTIFICATION (UNCCD)

7. • Article 1: Definition
• Article 2: General Obligations
• Article 3: Research and Systematic
Observations
• Article 4: Co-operation in the
Legal, Scientific and Technical
Fields
• Article 5: Transmission of
Information
• Article 6: Conference of the party
• Article 7: Secretariat
• Article 8: Adoption of Protocols
• Article 9: Amendment of the
Convention or Protocols
• Article 10: Adoption and
Amendment of Annexes
• Article 11:Settlement of Disputes
• Article 12: Signature
• Article 13 Ratification, Acceptance
or Approval
• Article 14 Accession
• Article 15 Right to Vote
• Article 16 Relationship between
the Convention and its Protocols
• Article 17 Entry into Force
• Article 18 Reservations
• Article 19 Withdrawal
• Article 20 Depositary
• Article 21 Authentic Texts

8. Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone
Layer (1985)
• Opened for Signature Vienna, 22nd March
1985,
• Entered into Force: 22nd September 1988
• Acceded by Nepal on 6th July, 1994

9. General Obligations
• Co-operate by means of systematic observations, research and
information exchange in order to better understand and assess
the effects of human activities on the ozone layer and the
effects on human health and the environment from
modification of the ozone layer.
• Adopt appropriate legislative or administrative measures and
cooperate in harmonizing appropriate policies to control, limit,
reduce or prevent human activities under their. jurisdiction or
control should it be found that these activities have or are
likely to have adverse effects resulting from modification or
likely modification of the ozone layer;
• Co-operate in the formulation of agreed measures, procedures
and standards for the implementation of this Convention, with
a view to the adoption of protocols and annexes;
• Co-operate with competent international bodies to implement
effectively this Convention and protocols to which they are
party.

10. The United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC or FCCC)

11. • Ratified by Nepal on 2nd June, 1994)
• Opened for signature on 9th May, 1992
• Entered into force on 21st March 1994
• 26 articles in convention

12. • United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED), informally known as Earth
Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June, 1992.
The UNFCCC was opened for signature on May 9, 1992,
after an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee
produced the text of the Framework Convention as a
report following its meeting in New York from 30 April
to 9 May 1992. It entered into force on 21 March,
1994. As of December 2009, UNFCCC had 192 parties.
It was entered into force in Nepal on 31 July, 1994.
• The treaty is legally non-binding i.e. it does not set
mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions for
individual countries but it is complemented by the
1997 Kyoto Protocol.

13. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
• Realizing the desertification as a major economic, social
and environmental problem by international community,
the UN Conference on Desertification (UNCOD) adopted a
Plan of Action to Combat Desertification (PACD) in 1977.
• The UNCCD is based on the principles of participation,
partnership and decentralization was adopted in Paris on
17 June 1994 and opened for signature there on 14-15
October 1994. It entered into force on 26 December 1996,
90 days after the fiftieth ratification was received and
entered into force in Nepal on 13 January, 1997. It has 193
countries Parties as at August 2009.
• Major obligations
– to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought by
adopting integrated approach to address the physical, biological and
socio-economic aspects of the process of desertification and
drought and integration of strategies of poverty alleviation,
reparation and implementation of national action plan

14. Minamata Convention
• The Minamata Convention on Mercury is a
global treaty to protect human health and the
environment from the adverse effects of
mercury.
• 35 Articles are included in conventions.

15. Minamata Convention …
• The Convention draws attention to a global and ubiquitous
metal that, while naturally occurring, has broad uses in
everyday objects and is released to the atmosphere, soil and
water from a variety of sources. Controlling the
anthropogenic releases of mercury throughout its lifecycle
has been a key factor in shaping the obligations under the
Convention.
• Major highlights of the Convention include a ban on new
mercury mines, the phase-out of existing ones, the phase
out and phase down of mercury use in a number of products
and processes, control measures on emissions to air and on
releases to land and water, and the regulation of the
informal sector of artisanal and small-scale gold mining. The
Convention also addresses interim storage of mercury and
its disposal once it becomes waste, sites contaminated by
mercury as well as health issues.

16. STOCKHOLM CONVENTION ON PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS
• Date & Place of Adoption: 22nd May 2001,
Stockholm Date of Entry into Force: 17th May
2004
• 30 articles

17. Earth Summit
• 1972 - The United Nations Conference on the Human
Environment (UNCHS)
• 1982 - The 1982 Earth Summit in Nairobi (Kenya). An Earth
Summit was held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 10 to 18 May 1982.
The events of the time (Cold War) and the disinterest of US
President Ronald Reagan (who appointed his delegated
daughter Of the United States) made this summit a failure. It is
not even mentioned as an official Earth Summit.
• 1992 - The United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
• 2002 - The World Summit on Sustainable Development
"(WSSD) in Johannesburg (South Africa)
• 2012 - The United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development (UNCSD) or Rio+20, also took place in Rio de
Janeiro (Brazil)

18. Rio Conference
• The United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio de
Janeiro Earth Summit , Rio Summit, Rio Conference,
and Earth Summit was a major United
Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14
June 1992.
• 172 governments participated, with 116 sending their
heads of state or government. Some 2,400
representatives of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) attended, with 17,000 people at
the parallel NGO "Global Forum”, who had Consultative
Status.

19. Rio Conference
The issues addressed included:
– Systematic scrutiny of patterns of production — particularly the
production of toxic components, such as lead in gasoline, or
poisonous waste including radioactive chemicals
– Alternative sources of energy to replace the use of fossil fuels which
delegates linked to global climate change
– New reliance on public transportation systems in order to reduce
vehicle emissions, congestion in cities and the health problems
caused by polluted air and smoke
– The growing usage and limited supply of water
An important achievement of the summit was an agreement on
the Climate Change Convention which in turn led to the Kyoto
Protocol and the Paris Agreement.
Another agreement was to "not to carry out any activities on
the lands of indigenous peoples that would
cause environmental degradation or that would be culturally
inappropriate".

20. RIO Conference
• 27 Principles
• Agenda 21 was a special product of the Earth Summit.
It is a vast work program for the 21st century, approved
by consensus among the world leaders in Rio,
representing over 98% of the world's population. This
historic document is 700 pages long and embraces all
areas of sustainable development. A comprehensive
blueprint for a global partnership, Agenda 21 strives to
reconcile the twin requirements of a high quality
environment and a healthy economy for all people of
the world, while identifying key areas of responsibility
as well as offering preliminary cost estimates for
success.

21. Paris Declaration, 2015
• The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, was
held in Paris, France, from 30 November to 12 December
2015. It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of
the Parties (COP) to the 1992 United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th
session of the Conference of the Parties (CMP) to the
1997 Kyoto Protocol.
• The conference negotiated the Paris Agreement, a global
agreement on the reduction of climate change, the text of
which represented a consensus of the representatives of
the 196 parties attending it.
• The agreement will enter into force when joined by at least
55 countries which together represent at least 55 percent
of global greenhouse emissions. On 22 April 2016 (Earth
Day), 174 countries signed the agreement in New York, and
began adopting it within their own legal systems
(through ratification, acceptance, approval, or accession).