The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants was adopted at the Conference of Plenipotentiaries in Stockholm on 22 May 2001. The text is DONE at Stockholm; signature opened the next day at Folkets Hus / Stockholm City Conference Centre, then at United Nations Headquarters in New York until 22 May 2002. It is not the Rotterdam Convention on PIC, nor the Basel Convention on hazardous wastes, which it recalls. The authentic texts are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. Depositary: the Secretary-General of the United Nations. No reservations may be made. It is registered as chapter XXVII-15 of the UN Treaty Collection.

Article 1, mindful of the precautionary approach in Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration, sets the objective: to protect human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants. Article 3 requires Parties to prohibit or eliminate production, use, import and export of the chemicals listed in Annex A, to restrict those in Annex B (including DDT, with an acceptable purpose of disease vector control, at the level of principle) and to reduce unintentional releases listed in Annex C. No chemical catalogue or production handbook is transcribed.

The Convention provides for national implementation plans, environmentally sound management of stockpiles and wastes, financial and technical assistance for developing countries and economies in transition, and a process to add new substances through the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee and the Conference of the Parties. Secretariat functions are performed by the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, unless the Conference decides otherwise. No incineration or storage protocol is transcribed.

Article 24: open for signature by all States and regional economic integration organizations. Article 26: it enters into force on the ninetieth day after deposit of the fiftieth instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession. The UN Treaty Collection records 17 May 2004. An instrument deposited by a regional organization is not counted in addition to those of its member States. Depositary notification CN.766 of 2017 concerns later annex amendments; it is not this instrument.

Cover: Folkets Hus in Stockholm, venue of the Conference of Plenipotentiaries and of the opening for signature; we do not claim the hall. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants; Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (UNEP).