The Stockholm Convention is a legally binding international instrument, designed to lead to gradual decrease of the presence of persistent organic pollutants in the environment. Article 16 of the Convention requires that effectiveness of the measures adopted by the Convention is evaluated in regular intervals.
The objective of the effectiveness evaluation is assessing whether the Stockholm Convention is an effective tool to protect human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants. In practice this happens through evaluating whether:
- Releases from intentional production and use are eliminated or reduced;
- Releases from unintentional production are eliminated or reduced;
- Releases from stockpiles and wastes are eliminated or reduced; and
- Environmental levels of POPs are decreasing over time