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A new WHO behavioural insights toolkit is supporting countries to better understand and address the drivers of harmful skin‑lightening practices, strengthening efforts to eliminate mercury‑containing cosmetics and protect public health.
On this International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, we highlight that detoxifying cosmetics and beauty ideals is also a way to fight racism..
Exposure to mercury in cosmetics, including some skin-lightening products, disproportionately affects women & vulnerable communities. Under the MinamataConvention, Parties commit to protect human health and the environment by phasing out mercury-added cosmetics.
Harmful beauty standards carry serious health risks. Ellen Rosskam and Małgorzata Alicja Stylo show how multilateral action is removing mercury from skin-lightening cosmetics.
The National Institute for Minamata Disease (NIMD), in collaboration with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is organizing laboratory proficiency testing (PT) for assessing the analytical capacity for mercury. The PT provides the individual proficiency levels of participating laboratories as well as collective mercury monitoring capacity in the region. UNEP is supporting this activity via the Japan-funded regional project in Asia and the Pacific.
“Why is it always those who have light skin that win,” asks a young Senegalese man tasked with handing out flyers for a local beauty pageant.
Last week at COP-6 in Geneva, Switzerland, over 150 governments agreed on a global plan to crack down on cosmetics containing mercury. The plan will see policing agencies, including Interpol and the World Customs Organization (WCO), collaborate to investigate where the products are manufactured, transported, and sold.
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Geneva, 7 November 2025 - The sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury (COP-6), held in Geneva from 3 to 7 November 2025, brought together over 1,000 participants in person and nearly 4,000 online viewers. Parties adopted 22 decisions to advance the Convention’s objective of protecting human health and the environment from mercury pollution, marking a week of collaboration, determination, and shared purpose.
Geneva, Switzerland — In a landmark decision, today the Sixth Conference of the Parties (COP-6) of the Minamata Convention invited the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention on Mercury to work with Interpol, the World Customs Organisation and others to investigate the manufacture, import and export of mercury-added cosmetics. COP-6 also decided to work towards closing the loopholes legally allowing mercury compounds to be traded, as this is compromising the Convention’s objective, particularly related to lacing cosmetics with mercury.
UNEP is taking a stand against toxic skin-lightening products—exposing the dangers of harmful chemicals while championing the beauty, inclusion, and equity of all skin tones. Together, we can challenge colorism, stop the manufacture and trade of mercury containing cosmetics, and shift mindsets toward a safer and more inclusive future.
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When Iya Kande’s youngest son turned two months old, she began using a skin-lightening soap on his face and body.
Kande, whose last name has been changed to protect her identity, lives in northern Nigeria. She was hoping a fairer complexion would ingratiate the boy with his grandmother, who like many in the region had come to equate light skin with beauty.
But within weeks, the child’s skin began to blister and break out in rashes. It wasn’t until months later that Kande learned the cause. The soap was laced with mercury.
In support of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21st, the Zero Mercury Working Group and WE ACT for Environmental Justice are calling for the elimination of mercury-added skin lightening products (Hg/SLPs) as an important step towards protecting consumers and helping to end colorism.
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As the world observes the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on 21 March 2025, the United Nations Environment Programme, the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention and the Secretariat of the Global Mercury Partnership, are releasing a set of messages for public use and engagement that highlight the urgent need to stop the production and use of skin-lightening products containing mercury and other hazardous substances.
As the world observes the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on 21 March, the United Nations Environment Programme, the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention and the Secretariat of the Global Mercury Partnership, are releasing a set of messages for public use and engagement that highlight the urgent need to stop the production and use of skin-lightening products containing mercury and other hazardous substances.
Women make up 30% of the global artisanal and small-scale mining workforce, and they have critical roles to play in the movement to #MakeMercuryHistory & to safeguard communities from unsafe mining practices. Projects in the planetGOLD programme promote the participation and advancement of women who choose to work in this mining sector in order to provide for themselves and their families.
The end of 2024 was rich in significant events, including the fifteenth meeting of the Partnership Advisory Group (PAG-15), international meetings, as well as regional workshops under ongoing GEF funded projects on mercury-containing products.
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA—January 30, 2025 —Today, Plaintiffs Larry Lee and As You Sow reached a settlement with Amazon concluding a nearly decade-long lawsuit addressing the sale on Amazon.com of brightening and lightening skin creams containing mercury. This settlement prohibits Amazon from selling skin lightening creams that contain mercury in excess of FDA limits.
In the context of Sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity taking place next week in Cali, Colombia from 21 October to 1 November 2024, we would like to highlight how global community is advancing the agenda to reduce and eliminate mercury and associated impacts on biodiversity. This is achieved by knowledge generation, curation, dissemination as well as on the ground transformative work.
In the small coastal town of Guapi, Colombia, Mary Luz Ante Orobio is meeting with a group she calls “the unstoppable women.”
They are gathered around a wooden chest filled with loose cash, a ledger and a calculator. Orobio flips through the ledger, eyes poring over tidy notes outlining a series of financial investments. She jots down some numbers before distributing cash among the group.
Albania, Burkina Faso, India, Montenegro and Uganda have joined forces to halt mercury pollution from the healthcare sector
Mercury harms human health and the environment
$134-million initiative will support a holistic approach to improve the management of mercury waste and the adoption of alternatives
Geneva, 14 May 2024 – The Governments of Albania, Burkina Faso, India, Montenegro and Uganda have united to combat chemical pollution today, launching a $134-million project to eliminate the use of mercury in medical devices.
Geneva—Today, as the United Nations highlights “the urgent need to address the harmful effects” of mercury added skin lightening products (SLPs) on the International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21, advocates are calling on governments to enforce bans and collaborate globally to end the toxic beauty trade.
As the world observes the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21, UNEP in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention highlights the urgent need to address the harmful effects of skin-lightening mercury-containing products (SLPs).
Toxic beauty ideals are among the many effects of racism, with people worldwide too often feeling pressure to change their skin tone, putting health at risk.
The Report on activities undertaken within the Global Mercury Partnership, 2022-2023 is now available.
The Secretariat of the Minamata Convention participated in the Bern III Conference on cooperation among the biodiversity-related conventions for the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which took place from 23 to 25 January 2024 in Bern, Switzerland. The Conference was organized by the government of Switzerland and UNEP.
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Among the decisions made at COP-5, Parties defined new dates to phase out mercury-added products including cosmetics, strengthened ties with Indigenous Peoples, advanced the first effectiveness evaluation of the Convention, and reached an agreement on a threshold for mercury waste.
Read more on Minamata Convention website
It is October 2013, and Rimiko Yoshinaga is standing behind a podium in Minamata, Japan, gazing at an auditorium packed with world leaders.
Silence descends upon the room as she begins recounting how a mysterious illness had killed her father decades earlier.
Yoshinaga would learn her father was one of thousands of Minamata-area residents poisoned in the 1950s and 1960s by industrial runoff laced with mercury, a neurotoxin.
The overall goal of the UNEP Global Mercury Partnership is to protect human health and the environment from the releases of mercury.