A/HRC/30/40 1. To generate, collect, assess and update 50. To respect, protect and fulfil human rights, States have a duty to investigate the actual and potential human rights impacts of hazardous substances and wastes throughout their life cycle. As such, States have a duty to generate, collect, assess and update information on hazardous substances and wastes. Substances must be assessed for: (a) their hazardous properties, such as the ability to cause cancer or explode; (b) the likelihood of exposure, including for those at risk of disproportionate levels of exposure; (c) the risk of harm; and (d) options available to prevent harm. 51. This duty needs to be carried out regularly, systematically and with special attention given to continuing innovation in the development of new substances with unique risks, and information being generated about the risks of hazardous substances. Because neither industry nor science is static, States must continue to perform this duty diligently, as close as possible to the pace of scientific advancements. An example of this duty is found under article L124–7 of the French Environment Code which calls on the public authorities to make sure that the information about the environment that they have collected is precise and up to date and can enable comparison. 52. States have a duty to ensure that information about public health and other public interests is available to individuals, and that each person can exercise his or her human right to information. For example, the European Court of Human Rights held that the State had breached its duty to provide “essential information that would have enabled [the nearby community] to assess risks they and their families might run if they continued to live at Manfredonia, a town particularly exposed to danger in the event of an accident at [the chemical] factory”.37 Significantly, the State was not in possession of the information. 38 53. While many countries do not have specific domestic legislation or policies in place to ensure that a minimum amount of critical information is generated, collected, assessed and updated on the properties, uses and fate potentially of all hazardous substances, certain States have taken action individually and jointly to address the information gaps that prevent States from assessing actual and potential human rights impacts from hazardous substances and wastes. The OECD Mutual Acceptance of Data system and high production volume chemicals programme helped to generate, collect and assess information on the most widely used hazardous substances and wastes efficiently and through international cooperation. 54. The European Union has led efforts to generate, collect and assess information on the hazardous properties and uses of approximately 30,000 industrial substances. Under the 2006 European Union Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals, businesses must provide States with a minimum amount of information on the hazardous properties of industrial chemicals produced or imported at or above one ton per year. If information is not available, it must be generated by businesses that wish to register the substance for use. Reporting requirements under the Regulation, where information about hazardous industrial substances must flow up and down the value chain, to and from chemical manufacturers and downstream users, help to ensure that substances are being used safely and information is updated. 55. In the aftermath of the tragedy in Bhopal, several countries adopted laws to generate, assess and update information about the risk of large-scale chemical accidents and regular industrial emissions of hazardous substances. In some countries, local governments are 37 38 European Court of Human Rights, Guerra and Others v. Italy (116/1996/735/932), Judgement, 19 February 1998, summary. Ibid., para. 59. 13