ABSTRACT
The Minamata Convention on Mercury was adopted by over 140 countries in 2013 and entered into force in 2017. The Convention aims to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds. The Convention stipulates the appropriate management and reduction of emissions through the entire lifecycle of mercury, including mining, use in products and manufacturing processes, emission to the atmosphere, and disposal as waste. The institutional design of the Convention is widely regarded as a remarkable achievement in terms of behavioral rule and implementation and compliance. Difficulties in capacity building and compliance under the BRS conventions strongly affected the institutional design of the Minamata Convention. However, the Convention has its own independent Secretariat and conference of parties, which are separate from the integrated Secretariat and the Triple conference of parties of the BRS conventions. It remains to be seen how the Convention will fulfill its objectives in collaboration with the BRS conventions.
