The Rotterdam Convention is promoting shared responsibility and cooperative efforts among Parties in the international trade of certain hazardous chemicals in order to protect human health and the environment from potential harm. The Convention contributes to the environmentally sound use of such chemicals, by facilitating information exchange about their characteristics, by providing for a national decision-making process on their import and export and by disseminating these decisions to Parties.

The Convention prevents unwanted trade in the chemicals included in the legally binding prior informed consent (PIC) procedure.  The Convention also calls for the provision of technical assistance to help establish the infrastructure and capacity necessary to safely manage chemicals.

Mission and strategy

Rotterdam Convention addresses trade of hazardous chemicals and, by implication, their use and regulation. It deals with chemicals that are banned or severely restricted in some countries (particularly in industrialized regions) but that are still exported to other countries (particularly in developing regions).

Working in synergy the Rotterdam, Basel and Stockholm Conventions it is helping countries to manage hazardous chemicals throughout their life-cycle. Rotterdam Convention provides early warning on dangerous chemicals and prevents the unwanted international trade on certain chemicals.

The Rotterdam Convention's approach is to stop problems with hazardous chemicals before they start, by impeding exports of unwanted hazardous chemicals to countries that cannot manage them.

The Convention is an early warning system that empowers Parties to take their own informed decisions on toxic chemical imports by providing information on other countries’ decisions to ban or severely restrict certain chemicals and on experiences with severely hazardous pesticide formulations, inform on the means to stop unwanted imports; the requirement that exporting countries respect other countries' decisions on imports.

The Rotterdam Convention in the project

Rotterdam Convention will contribute to the project component on social sustainability aiming at the protection of farmers and vulnerable groups from pesticides poisoning.

Awareness will be raised in the region on key elements of the Convention and in particular on article 6 on Severely Hazardous Pesticides formulations representing a concrete opportunity for Parties with economies in transition that are facing problems in taking regulatory actions to ban or severely restrict chemicals.

Rotterdam Convention will work in close collaboration with PAN UK and project staff to tackle high risk scenarios at national level. And, in the context of article 6, local conditions of pesticides use will be put in relation to farmers in order to identify potential vulnerable groups.