UN Expert Calls for Global Action as Toxic Pollution Threatens Human Rights

Addressing the UN General Assembly, she urged governments to move from managing pollution towards preventing the harm it causes.

Toxic pollution continues to threaten fundamental human rights worldwide, with a UN expert calling for stronger action to prevent exposure and hold those responsible accountable. Bethanie Carney Almroth, the Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, said the problem remains a profound human rights crisis three decades after the mandate was established. Addressing the UN General Assembly, she urged governments to move from managing pollution towards preventing the harm it causes.

Carney Almroth presented her predecessor's report, which reviews 30 years of the mandate's work, examining progress, persistent challenges and priorities for the future. The report documents how toxic exposure interferes with rights to life, health, food, water and safe and healthy working conditions. It describes threats to people's rights to information, participation in decisions affecting their lives and effective remedies when exposure causes harm.

Rapid growth in chemical production, unsustainable consumption and inadequate controls over hazardous substances throughout their life cycles are accelerating the world's toxic burden. Carney Almroth warned that the consequences reach across the globe, with the greatest harm falling on people who have contributed least to the problem. Her appeal placed human dignity, environmental justice and fairness between generations at the centre of efforts to build a future free from toxic harm.

Vulnerable communities carry the heaviest burden

Children, workers, Indigenous Peoples, women and girls, people living in poverty and communities in pollution hotspots bear a disproportionate share of toxic exposure. The expert stressed that contamination does not disappear when a facility closes, a project finishes or a conflict ends. Toxic substances can leave a legacy embedded in ecosystems, livelihoods and human health for generations, extending the damage beyond the activity that caused it.

Prevention requires stronger laws and corporate accountability

Carney Almroth called on states to strengthen legal protections, progressively eliminate the most hazardous substances and apply the precautionary principle when addressing potential harm. She urged governments to improve corporate accountability and guarantee effective remedies for victims, making protection from toxic exposure a matter of enforceable rights. Businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights throughout their operations and supply chains, placing responsibility for prevention across the activities through which hazardous substances are produced, used and handled.

Cooperation and public participation must shape the response

A healthy environment free from toxic harm requires stronger international cooperation, policies grounded in science and meaningful participation by communities affected by pollution. Carney Almroth said accountability at every level must support that work, with the mandate's next chapter advancing a non-toxic future that protects present and future generations. Calling for renewed global commitment, she said the experience of the past 30 years shows that toxic pollution is fundamentally a human rights issue, with consequences extending across health, livelihoods and access to justice.