Gender, Toxics Exposures and the Right to a Clean, Safe, Healthy, and Sustainable Environment | 2025 BRS COPs Side Event

This side event to the 2025 meetings of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions was organized by the International Pollutant Elimination Network, Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF) and The Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights with the support of the Geneva Environment Network.

About this Event

Frequency, magnitude and effects of exposure to POPs and other toxic chemicals are in many cases impacted by gender- and sex-related factors, including societal norms and expectations on gender roles at home and at work. In addition, gender is often a deciding factor when it comes to access to decision-making. Taking this into account, the first BRS Gender Action Plan was developed in 2013 to ensure that the principles of gender equality were firmly embedded in activities undertaken by the BRS Secretariat, and the fourth, most recent update was recently presented.

However, the importance of considering impacts of gender- and sex-related factors is often either not known or disregarded, making these aspects invisible. The objective of this side event is therefore to highlight the importance of considering sex- and gender-related factors in implementation of the BRS Conventions, including actions by Parties to prevent POPs generating or deepening gendered injustices, especially against women and girls, gender-diverse persons and poor men, and especially when they are from marginalized communities.

The event centered around the recent report of the Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human rights that presents evidence of how the generation and release of large amounts of hazardous chemicals, often originating from the petrochemical, extractive and agricultural industries, is causing serious adverse impacts on human rights resulting in gender- and sex-related health harms. These include infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth or low birthweight, cancers and metabolic disorders across society, with grave implications for the rights to health, to family life, to physical and mental integrity and to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, including a safe and healthy working environment.

The event raised awareness about key aspects related to gender and chemicals with participants, including its implications for the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes. It also facilitated a conversation between government, civil society and other stakeholders on key actions to be taken to address these issues.

2025 Meetings of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions

The seventeenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention (BC COP-17), the twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention (RC COP-12) and the twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention (SC COP-12) will be held back-to-back in Geneva from 28 April to 9 May 2025. Side events to the 2025 meetings of the BRS COPs will serve as a platform for Parties and observers to share knowledge, build capacity, network and exchange on experience in the implementation of the BRS conventions. They also contribute to fostering discussions on specific issues under consideration at the COPs.

Towards the 2025 Meetings of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions

Geneva Toxic Free Talks

The Geneva Toxic Free Talks is an opportunity to reflect on the challenges posed by the production, use and dissemination of toxics. This series, taking place in the margins of the 2025 Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS COPs 2025), will highlight how Geneva, as a global hub for tackling toxic substances and waste, contributes to bringing together the actors working in reversing the toxic tide.

Geneva Toxic Free Talks

Speakers

By order of intervention.

David OGDEN

Deputy Executive Secretary, Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions

Steffi RICHTER

Officer, International Chemicals Safety / SustainableChemistry, German Federal Ministry for the Environment, NatureConservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV)

Marcos ORELLANA

UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights

Sonia BUFTHEIM

Senior Program Officer, Nexus3 Foundation & Co-Chair, IPEN Youth

Griffins OCHIENG

Executive Director, Centre for Environmental Justice and Development, Kenya

Halshka GRACZYK

Technical Specialist, Technical Specialist, Occupational Safety and Health and Working Environment Branch, ILO

Clarissa MACANEIRO VIANA

Legal Officer, Occupational Safety and Health and Working Environment Branch, ILO

Sascha GABIZON

Executive Director, Women Engage for a Common Future International | Moderator

Highlights

#Live now!

This #BRSCOPs2025 side event highlights the need to consider gender & sex-related factors in decision-making on #gender & #chemicals to prevent deepening gendered injustices due to POPs & toxic chemicals exposure.

▶️ https://t.co/zE1ZuTLZWW
📺 https://t.co/AQOx644COf pic.twitter.com/ZWKdc8y8kw
— GENeva Environment Network (@GENetwork) April 29, 2025

Video

Live from CICG.

Summary

WECF with IPEN, the Geneva Environment Network and the UN Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights organised an event highlighting how, in different contexts, women face the same health issues related to chemicals and waste.

Inputs from panellists from contexts as diverse as Germany, Indonesia and Kenya show that women are more at risk of developing diseases when exposed to chemicals.
As the UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, Marcos Orellana explained in the presentation of his report ‘Gender and hazardous substances’, this is partly due to the fact that their bodies absorb harmful substances more quickly and store them more extensively.
- The report underscores diseases also have social consequences for women. For example, the responsibility for infertility, a common consequence of chemical exposure, is still often attributed to women. In extreme cases, this can lead to exclusion from their community. They are also usually responsible for caring for sick relatives. The consequential costs of using toxic chemicals are thus externalised into the unpaid labour of women.
Social construction of gender means women come into greater contact with toxic chemicals through their professional and private activities. Halshka Graczyk and Clarissa Macaneiro Viana from ILO present data showing that women are disproportionately affected by occupational cancers.
Steffi Richter (Federal Ministry for the Environment, Germany) also points out that these hidden costs of using harmful chemicals must be taken into account. She encourages actors to clearly point out these social monetary costs when it is argued that gender aspects are not very important in bad economic times.
Sonia Buftheim (nexus3, Indonesia) and Griffins Ochieng (CEJD, Kenya) emphasise that women also make a major contribution to solving the problem, despite or precisely because they are affected. As the documentary ‘Tackling Toxics’ shows, women are finding sustainable alternatives among Kenyan waste pickers. Sonia Buftheim puts it quite directly: ‘We no longer wait for a place at the table. We are taking power’. As co-chair of IPEN’s youth organisation, she emphasises that communities cannot necessarily wait for political decisions but can take their health and that of their environment into their own hands and presents impressive examples from Indonesia.
Moderator Sascha Gabizon draws the following conclusion from the panel’s interventions and the lively discussion with the audience: The best and most sustainable solution is to stop producing and using toxic chemicals. This benefits all living beings, regardless of gender! The right to a clean, safe, healthy and sustainable environment must be taken seriously. As Sonia Buftheim aptly put it: ‘Let’s move from risks to rights!’