A/HRC/21/48 I. Introduction 1. The present report, submitted in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 18/11, focuses on the adverse effects on the enjoyment of human rights of the unsound management and disposal of hazardous substances and waste used in and generated by extractive industries.1 II. Management and disposal of waste from extractive industries A. Scope and definitions 2. The present report focuses on the management and disposal of substances and wastes in the extraction of energy sources such as coal, uranium, oil shale and tar sands; precious metals such as gold and silver; industrial metals such as iron, mercury and bauxite for aluminium production; rare-earth metals; and asbestos.2 Furthermore, the report highlights the human rights implications associated with the extraction of these resources, but does not address the additional and equally substantial implications arising from the industrial conversion or downstream use of extracted resources. 3. For the purposes of this report, extractive industries are defined as those which remove a natural resource from its natural surroundings for industrial purposes without provision for their renewal in a socially, economically or environmentally viable timeframe. This definition can embrace both traditional extractive industries, such as the extraction of minerals, oil and natural gas, and biological resources and water.3 Other definitions recognize that extractive industries may include a range of resources, living and non-living, renewable and non-renewable, with their categorization as extractive depending on whether they exhibit economically significant rates of regeneration.4 4. The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal defines hazardous substances and wastes to include those that are toxic, ecotoxic, poisonous, explosive, corrosive, flammable and infectious. We can also add those with radioactive qualities to the list. The present report applies these properties to both substances and wastes used in and produced by extractive industries. For the purpose of this report, hazardous wastes are hazardous substances that are disposed of or created by abandonment on land or in water, emission into the atmosphere or underground storage. Additionally, hazardous substances that comprise oil and gas reserves or the vapours of elemental mercury from cinnabar extraction, as well as dust of extracted resources, such as coal and asbestos, are considered here as hazardous substances and not hazardous wastes. 1 2 3 4 The Special Rapporteur wishes to thank the Chemicals Branch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for the information provided during the preparation of the present report. The extraction of all metals and minerals is not considered in this report; it was felt that those cited are broadly representative of hazardous substances and wastes associated with the mining industry that have general human rights implications. See United Nations Interagency Framework Team for Preventive Action, “Extractive Industries and Conflict: Guidance Note for Practitioners,” (2010), p. 4; Economic and Social Council, “Study on indigenous peoples and corporations,” Note by the Secretariat (E/C.19/2010/1), para. 1; and Andres Liebenthal, Roland Michelitsch and Ethel Tarazona, Extractive Industries and Sustainable Development: An Evaluation of the World Bank Experience (Washington, D.C., World Bank, 2005). See F.M. Peterson and A.C. Fisher, “The Exploitation of extractive resources: A survey,” The Economic Journal, vol. 87, No. 348 (December 1977), p. 681. 3