ABSTRACT
Strong international consensus among laws across a majority of nations and a parallel system of codified international norms demonstrate a universal desire to protect consumers, protect the environment throughout the life cycle of product use, and enhance occupational health protections for all societies. Of all the United Nations (UN)-based international human rights documents, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) Article 12 most clearly and deliberately addresses health. The World Health Organization (WHO) Constitution offers an elastic framework that can be expanded to include new developments and reduced when a problem has successfully been diminished, as in the case of eradication of smallpox. WHO's International Programme for Chemical Safety (IPCS) Harmonization Project enables governments and others to work toward the achievement of goals first outlined in Agenda 21, Chapter 19, in Rio in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.
