A seminar on project directed at ratifying Minamata Convention on mercury kicked off in Yerevan on June 23.
Deputy Minister of Nature Protection Simon Papyan has told that the project has been designed to monitor legal boundaries, as well as estimate the ratification consequences of the Convention.
Ministry has taken up action towards identifying the main mercury sources in Armenia - record- keeping of mercury-bearing products and waste, analysis of mercury-contaminated environment.
According to Swiss ambassador to Armenia Lucas Gasser United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) aids several countries, including Armenia, to implement actions directed at speeding up the ratification process of Minamata Convention. Swiss government also has its role in funding these processes.
Eiji Taguchi, the first Resident Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of Armenia, touched upon the poisonous mercury vapors saying that the latter can be rather harmful to health. He also reminded of the Minamata disease caused by sever mercury poisoning in Japan in the 1950s. Taguchi stated that such a disease is not to harm populations in the XXI century, therefore; there is a need for joint efforts to prevent the spread of the illness.
The Minamata Convention on Mercury is an international treaty designed to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds. This Convention was a result of three years of meeting and negotiating, after which the text of the Convention was ratified by delegates from 140 countries on January 19, 2013. The Convention is named after the Japanese city, Minimata. This naming is of symbolic importance as the city went through devastating incident of mercury poisoning. It is expected that over the next few decades, this international agreement will enhance the reduction of mercury pollution from the targeted activities responsible for the major release of mercury to the immediate environment.